Social Intelligence-The new science of human relationships

Social Intelligence-The new science of human relationships
By Daniel Goleman, Hutchinson, 2006


In this book, Daniel Goleman, explores an emerging new science with major implications for our interpersonal world. Human beings are designed for sociability and are constantly engaged in a neural ballet that connects them brain-to-brain with those around. Goleman points out that human beings have a built in bias towards empathy, cooperation and altruism. Social intelligence can help them to nurture and develop these capacities.

This book deals with the social aspects of intelligence, i.e. how our brains work when we are in groups. The social brain refers to the neural mechanisms that coordinate our interactions as well as thoughts and feelings about people and our relationships. The social brain is the only biological system in our bodies that continually influences and in turn becomes influenced by the internal state of the people we are with. All other biological systems mainly regulate their activity in response to signals emerging from within our body.

Social intelligence has two components:

A) Social awareness
B) Social facility

Social awareness includes:

1) Primal empathy : Feeling with others , sensing emotional signals.
2) Attunement : Listening with full receptivity
3) Empathic accuracy : Understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings and intentions
4) Social cognition : Knowing how the social world works.

Social facility includes:

1) Synchrony : Interacting smoothly at the verbal level
2) Self presentation : Presenting ourselves effectively
3) Influence : Shaping the outcome of social interactions
4) Concern : Caring about others’ needs and acting accordingly.

Read this book to know more about social intelligence.