2012 Philadelphia Book Festival

In what Psychology Today called the “remedy for the modern glut of frivolous self-help literature,” award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis was a widely praised demystification of life. Citing Plato, Buddha, and modern brain science, Haidt sifted Eastern and Western maxims for nuggets of modern wisdom. A social psychology professor at the University of Virginia, Haidt is an active exponent in the “positive psychology” movement, and has published an abundance of research articles and political essays in Psychological Review, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and others. He also co-edited Flourishing, a collection of essays on well-being, and has given major talks for TED and Edge.org, as well as a panel discussion with the Dalai Lama at the University of Southern California. The Righteous Mind is a landmark exploration into the origins of morality and its role as the foundation of politics and religion.