The Science of Compassionate Love: Theory, Research, and Applications

“Through this volume, Fehr, Sprecher, and Underwood have provided a detailed compilation of related theory, research, and applications while also encouraging a reexamination of common conceptions of compassionate love and related constructs.” (PsycCritiques, June 2009)

“The contributors work in a variety of disciplines—social psychology, communication, health science. Together they present a state-of-the-art perspective, oriented toward future scientific investigations of compassionate love but in touch with its roots in developments such as humanistic psychology.” (CHOICE, March 2009)

"By bringing cutting-edge science to bear on the ways in which compassionate love is manifest in human activity, these scientists provide an encouraging and sensible antidote to the cynical view of human nature that is so common today. Readers will find this volume a rich source of ideas for research and applications." 
–Harry T. Reis, University of Rochester

"What the world needs now is not just love but compassionate love defined as 'giving of self for the good of the other' whether someone close, unknown others or humanity in general. This volume brings together distinguished researchers from a number of social science disciplines to focus on this important aspect of love. The book clearly fulfills its goal of providing a 'state of the art' treatment of this important topic. Hopefully it will also encourage future research that will increase our understanding of how to develop compassionate love in our troubled world."
–Patricia Noller, University of Queensland