The character arc of Dacher Keltner
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in Jalisco, Mexico, in a year the public record does not publish, to a literature professor mother and a father who was an artist and a firefighter. Between then and now sit a childhood in Laurel Canyon in the 1970s, a move to a town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada when his mother took her first professorship, a family relocation to Nottingham in England during his high school years, a degree in psychology and sociology, a distinguished chair at Berkeley, a laboratory, a science centre he founded, election to a national academy in 2020 and a lifetime achievement award in 2026. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Dacher Keltner?
Awe was not a subject. He made it one.
He was born in Jalisco, Mexico, to two early members of the counterculture: a mother who was a literature professor and a father who was an artist and a firefighter. They raised him and his brother in Laurel Canyon in the 1970s, which is about as specific a cultural address as America offers.
Then the family moved twice more, and both moves were jolts. When his mother secured her first job as a professor they went to a conservative town in the foothills of the California Sierra Nevada, which is the opposite of Laurel Canyon in almost every way. When he was in high school the family relocated again, to Nottingham in England. A childhood spent being the new and obviously different child in three very different places is, on the evidence, useful training for a career studying how people read each other.
He took his first degree in psychology and sociology at the University of California, and became a psychologist. He is now Distinguished Professor of psychology at Berkeley, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab, and founding faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center there.
What he is known for is emotion, and specifically being a foundational figure in establishing the scientific study of prosocial emotions, above all awe and compassion. Awe is a hard thing to bring into a laboratory: it is enormous, rare and almost impossible to induce on demand. He did it anyway, and the field exists because of it. He has also worked hard to bring that research to a broad public audience. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020, and in 2026 received a lifetime achievement award from a national psychological association.
The moments
Dacher Keltner's timeline.
The 1970s
Laurel Canyon in the seventies
Everyday, and it changed everything. A literature professor, an artist firefighter, and Laurel Canyon.
A conservative mountain town
Setback, and it changed everything. From Laurel Canyon to a mountain town that was its opposite.
And then England
Setback, and it changed everything. A third country, in the middle of high school.
The 1980s
Psychology and sociology
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two subjects about how people behave around each other.
The 1990s
A chair at Berkeley
Milestone, and it changed everything. A distinguished chair, and a laboratory on how people deal with each other.
The 2000s
Which emotions to study
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: study awe and compassion, taken, or stay with the difficult ones. He was elected to a national academy in 2020 and given a lifetime achievement award in 2026.
The Greater Good Science Center
Milestone, and it changed everything. A centre with the greater good in its name, inside a research university.
Awe becomes a subject
Milestone, and it changed everything. He found a way to study the thing that is hardest to get into a laboratory.
The 2010s
Out to the public
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The findings, carried deliberately out past the university gates.
The 2020s
Elected to the academy
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Elected to the academy, for a subject that used to be unserious.
A lifetime award
Milestone, and it changed everything. A lifetime achievement award, for making awe a science.
The centre at Berkeley keeps publishing and he keeps taking the findings out to people who are not scientists. What he set moving is the scientific study of the good things, awe and compassion above all, which had been left out of psychology for a century because nobody could work out how to measure them.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His involved being the new and obviously different child in three countries. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Dacher Keltner: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Dacher Keltner's life come from?
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Sources
- Dacher Keltner, English Wikipedia biography.
- University of California, Berkeley records for his chair, the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab and the Greater Good Science Center.
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences election records for 2020 and the Association for Psychological Science award for 2026.
- His birth date is not in the public record reached, so this page states none.