LinkedIn Presents.

I'm Rufus Griscombe, and I'm Ponyo Giannopolis, and this is the next big idea.

Today, the surprising science of human goodness. So, Ponyo, you and I have known each other for at least a decade now.

A question I've been interested

to ask, do you think of yourself as a cynic? I would consider myself a lapsed cynic. I used to be

cynical, and then I've been working on it trying to become more optimistic. And I would ask you

the same question, but I know all too well from experience, you are by far the most

optimistic person I have ever met. And that includes when my son was four years old and thought

the world was, you know, rainbows and puppies. Oh my gosh. I've only recently graduated from

just putting everything that I see in my mouth. I definitely consider myself an optimist, but

specifically when it comes to other people,

interpersonal dynamics, I think of myself as being somewhat more skeptical when I think about

how the world works, the systems through which the world operates. But let me tell you, the reason

I ask you this question, Ponteo, is that this week on the show, you sat down with Jamil Zaki, who runs the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab.

And he's got a new book out. A lot of people are talking about called Hope for Cynics.

Let's give our listeners a little taste. What is this book all about?

It's a fascinating book.

As soon as I saw the title, I thought, this one's for me, right?

So it looks at why so many of us feel like the world kind of sucks these days and that people

are getting meaner and trust is way down and everyone's self-interested.

But as it turns out, that perception is off. There's all this research showing that

people are often way more decent and generous than we give them credit for. And it's a long,

...