Behave Behave

Behave

The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

    • 4.6 • 98 Ratings
    • $14.99
    • $14.99

Publisher Description

Why do we do the things we do?

Over a decade in the making, this game-changing book is Robert Sapolsky's genre-shattering attempt to answer that question as fully as perhaps only he could, looking at it from every angle. Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its genetic inheritance.

And so the first category of explanation is the neurobiological one. What goes on in a person's brain a second before the behavior happens? Then he pulls out to a slightly larger field of vision, a little earlier in time: What sight, sound, or smell triggers the nervous system to produce that behavior? And then, what hormones act hours to days earlier to change how responsive that individual is to the stimuli which trigger the nervous system? By now, he has increased our field of vision so that we are thinking about neurobiology and the sensory world of our environment and endocrinology in trying to explain what happened.

Sapolsky keeps going--next to what features of the environment affected that person's brain, and then back to the childhood of the individual, and then to their genetic makeup. Finally, he expands the view to encompass factors larger than that one individual. How culture has shaped that individual's group, what ecological factors helped shape that culture, and on and on, back to evolutionary factors thousands and even millions of years old.

The result is one of the most dazzling tours de horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted, a majestic synthesis that harvests cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines to provide a subtle and nuanced perspective on why we ultimately do the things we do...for good and for ill. Sapolsky builds on this understanding to wrestle with some of our deepest and thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, morality and free will, and war and peace. Wise, humane, often very funny, Behave is a towering achievement, powerfully humanizing, and downright heroic in its own right.

GENRE
Science & Nature
RELEASED
2017
May 2
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
800
Pages
PUBLISHER
Penguin Publishing Group
SELLER
PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
SIZE
36.4
MB

Customer Reviews

Eleanor J Kaufman ,

Life-changing

The best book I have ever consumed. Biological context for some of the worlds most contentious issues. Every opinion I may have had about the world has changed. Extremely understandable. Will be listening to the full 26 hours again, and again… and again.

Dr. Dunivan ,

“It’s complicated”

Absolutely fascinating explanation of the neurobiological and psychological reasoning for our worst and best behaviors. Interesting argument against “free will”

rrubio@99 ,

From the brain to the World

This book is amazing.

More Books Like This

Determined Determined
2023
The Trouble With Testosterone The Trouble With Testosterone
2012
The Folly of Fools The Folly of Fools
2011
Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves
2013
The Mind of the Market The Mind of the Market
2007
A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
2021

More Books by Robert M. Sapolsky

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
2004
Determined Determined
2023
A Primate's Memoir A Primate's Memoir
2007
The Trouble With Testosterone The Trouble With Testosterone
2012
Zachowuj się Zachowuj się
2021
Monkeyluv Monkeyluv
2005

Customers Also Bought

Noise Noise
2021
Homo Deus Homo Deus
2017
Who We Are and How We Got Here Who We Are and How We Got Here
2018
The Order of Time The Order of Time
2018
Skin in the Game Skin in the Game
2018
Reality Is Not What It Seems Reality Is Not What It Seems
2017