Exclusion and othering are as old as humanity, with tragic impacts. The marginalized suffer violence, poorer health outcomes, shorter lifespans, food insecurity, reduced access to work and housing, and routine indignities in everyday interactions. There is hope, however. The same neuroscience that explains our urge to other also shows us the way forward and away from othering.

No term describes the simultaneous presence of 2 positive attributes in an individual the way comorbidity describes the simultaneous presence of 2 diseases. This isn’t a surprise. Epidemiology has been around since the 1850s, while widespread scientific study of positive emotions and behaviors is more recent. This language gap should be closed and we propose doing so with a new word, “covitality.”