Sponsored by the Task Force for Global Health....

For centuries, thoughtful analysis of ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ was reserved for philosophers, religious scholars, and poets. Recently, however, the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and neuroscience have begun to yield fresh insights into the nature and mechanisms of love and compassion. Despite growing, multidisciplinary interest in these concepts, epidemiology – the scientific discipline that undergirds public health – remains largely absent from this discourse.1 With the support of The Fetzer Institute, the Task...