The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness

Harding, an emergency room physician and Columbia psychiatry professor, delivers an inspiring guide that will appeal to health enthusiasts fed up with the usual “10-step fitness plan or... two-week diet.” Seeking to move past a predominant “biomedical” approach to health care, Harding found her key in a 1978 laboratory study on heart health in which rabbits were fed a high-fat diet. It returned an unexpected result: vastly improved outcomes for one test group under an unusually kind, attentive researcher’s care. Harding thus examines various, seemingly nonmedical “hidden factors” for human health, such as nurturing childhoods, relationships, communities, and workplace cultures. To illustrate how they work, Harding employs dramatic and memorable stories, including of a small, close-knit Pennsylvania town, once famed for its low heart attack rate, whose health edge disappeared along with American social cohesion. She also includes accompanying “Tool Kit” suggestions, such as to “express your love for family... in a way that feels comfortable to you,” “cut down on activities that distract you from paying full attention,” and “lock eyes more with those you love”—even “for longer than feels comfortable.” Harding’s book will leave readers with much to ponder and, if not a surefire solution for better health, an encouraging rationale for treating others more kindly. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident Media Group (Sept.)