The Whole Health Cure

"Compassion and Biology of Interconnectedness" with Jennifer Mascaro, PhD

Episode Summary

Jennifer Mascaro, PhD is a biological anthropologist who studies human social cognition, and biology of interconnectedness. In her research, Dr. Mascaro explores how our prosocial emotions and behaviors impact our physical and mental health. This conversation centers around compassion - its meaning, expression and social norms around it, health implications of practicing compassion, and ways to get better at it.

Episode Notes

Jennifer Mascaro, PhD is a biological anthropologist with research interests that center on (1) the variation in, and plasticity of, human social cognition, and (2) the biology of interconnectedness. To this end, she uses structural and functional neuroimaging to explore how behavioral, cultural, hormonal, and genetic factors affect prosocial emotions and behaviors, and how these in turn impact health. Her work is ever collaborative and falls at the interface of medicine, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, religion, and social, clinical, and cognitive psychology.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Social cognition;
• Biology of interconnectedness;
• Understanding compassion, its meaning, where it comes from, and how it affects our health on physical and emotional levels;
• Gender differences and social norms around expressing compassion; masculinity and "fierce compassion";
• Compassion and parenting;
• Developing the skills of compassion and emotional intelligence.

To learn more please follow the links below:

https://www.mascarolab.org/

http://www.fpm.emory.edu/