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Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Hardcover – Illustrated, May 2, 2017
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“It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal
"It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
"Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post
From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and the forthcoming Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do?
Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.
- Print length800 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Press
- Publication dateMay 2, 2017
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.5 x 10 inches
- ISBN-101594205078
- ISBN-13978-1594205071
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
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"Sapolsky has created an immensely readable, often hilarious romp through the multiple worlds of psychology, primatology, sociology and neurobiology to explain why we behave the way we do. It is hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post
“It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal
“A quirky, opinionated and magisterial synthesis of psychology and neurobiology that integrates this complex subject more accessibly and completely than ever . . . a wild and mind-opening ride into a better understanding of just where our behavior comes from. Darwin would have been thrilled.” —Richard Wrangham, The New York Times Book Review
“[Sapolskly’s] new book is his magnum opus, but is also strikingly different from his earlier work, veering sharply toward hard science as it looms myriad strands of his ruminations on human behavior. The familiar, enchanting Sapolsky tropes are here—his warm, witty voice, a sleight of hand that unfolds the mysteries of cognition—but Behave keeps the bar high . . . . A stunning achievement and an invaluable addition to the canon of scientific literature, certain to kindle debate for years to come.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A masterly cross-disciplinary scientific study of human behavior: What in our glands, our genes, our childhoods explains our species’ capacity for both altruism and brutality? This comprehensive and friendly survey of a ‘big sprawling mess of a subject’ is leavened by an impressive data-to-silly joke ratio. It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, New York Times
“A monumental contribution to the scientific understanding of human behavior that belongs on every bookshelf and many a course syllabus . . . It is a magnificent culmination of integrative thinking, on par with similar authoritative works, such as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature.” —Michael Shermer, American Scholar
“Behave is the best detective story ever written, and the most important. If you've ever wondered why someone did something—good or bad, vicious or generous—you need to read this book. If you think you already know why people behave as they do, you need to read this book. In other words, everybody needs to read it. It should be available on prescription (side effects: chronic laughter; highly addictive). They should put Behave in hotel rooms instead of the Bible: the world would be a much better, wiser place” —Kate Fox, author of Watching the English
“Magisterial . . . This extraordinary survey of the science of human behaviour takes the reader on an epic journey . . . Sapolsky makes the book consistently entertaining, with an infectious excitement at the puzzles he explains . . . a miraculous synthesis of scholarly domains.” —Steven Poole, The Guardian
“Rarely does an almost 800-page book keep my attention from start to finish, but if anyone can save evolutionary biology from TED talkers and pop-science fabulists, it might be Sapolsky . . . . Behave ranges at great length from moral philosophy to social science, genetics to Sapolsky’s home turf of neurons and hormones—but all of it is aimed squarely at the question of why humans are so awful to each other, and whether the condition is terminal.” —Vulture
“Robert Sapolsky's students must love him. In Behave, the primatologist, neurologist and science communicator writes like a teacher: witty, erudite and passionate about clear communication. You feel like a lucky auditor in a fast-paced undergraduate course, where the implications of fascinating scientific findings are illuminated through topical stories and pop-culture allusions.” —Nature
“Sapolsky’s book shows in exquisite detail how culture, context and learning shape everything our genes, brains, hormones and neurons do.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Behave is like a great historical novel, with excellent prose and encyclopedic detail. It traces the most important story that can ever be told.” —Edward O. Wilson
“Truly all-encompassing . . . detailed, accessible, fascinating.” —The Telegraph
“A wide-ranging, learned survey of all the making-us-tick things that, for better or worse, define us as human . . . . An exemplary work of popular science, challenging but accessible.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred
“[Sapolsky] weaves science storytelling with humor . . . . [His] big ideas deserve a wide audience and will likely shape thinking for some time.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Sapolsky] does an excellent job of bringing together the expansive literature of thousands of fascinating studies with clarity and humor . . . . A tour-de-force.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Sapolsky finds not the high moral drama of the soul choosing good or evil but rather down-to-earth biology . . . a remarkably encyclopedic survey of the sciences illuminating human conduct.”
—Booklist(starred review)
“Read Robert Sapolsky’s marvelous book Behave and you’ll never again be surprised by the range and depth of our own bad behavior. We all carry the potential for unconscious biases, to be damaged by our childhoods and map that damage onto our own loved ones, and to form the tribal ‘Us’ groups that treat outsiders as lesser ‘Thems.’ But to read this book is also, marvelously, to be given the hope that we have much more control of those behaviors than we think. And Behave gives us more than hope—it gives us the knowledge of how to act on that aspiration, to manifest more of our best selves and less of our worst, individually and as a society. That’s very good news indeed.” —Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
"As wide as it is deep, this book is colorful, electrifying, and moving. Sapolsky leverages his deep expertise to ask the most fundamental questions about being human—from acts of hate to acts of love, from our compulsion to dehumanize to our capacity to rehumanize." —David Eagleman, PhD, neuroscientist at Stanford, author, presenter of PBS's The Brain
"Behave is a beautifully crafted work about the biology of morality. Sapolsky makes multiple passes at the target, using different time scales and systems. He shows you how all the perspectives and systems connect, and he makes you laugh and marvel along the way. Sapolsky is not just a leading primatologist; he’s a great writer and a superb guide to human nature." —Jonathan Haidt, New York University, author of The Righteous Mind
“This is a miraculous book, by far the best treatment of violence, aggression, and competition ever. It ranges from how neurons and hormones interact, how emotions are an essential part of decision making, why adolescents are more likely to be violent than adults, why genes influence cultures and vice-versa, and the ins and outs of “we versus them,” all the way to “live and let live” truces in World War I and the My Lai massacre. Its depth and breadth of scholarship are amazing, building on Sapolsky’s own research and his vast knowledge of the neurobiology, genetic, and behavioral literature. For instance, Behave includes fair evaluations of complex debates (like over sociobiology) that I was involved in, and tackles controversial questions such as whether our hunter-gatherer ancestors warred on each other. He even takes on “free will” with a clarity usually absent from the writings of philosophers on the subject. All this is done brilliantly with a light and funny touch that shows why Sapolsky is recognized as one of the greatest teachers in science today.” —Paul R. Ehrlich, author of Human Natures
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Press; Illustrated edition (May 2, 2017)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 800 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594205078
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594205071
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 10 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Neuroscience (Books)
- #2 in Criminology (Books)
- #4 in Textbooks (Special Features Stores)
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About the author
Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. He lives in San Francisco.
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Behave is split into 17 chapters in which each chapter effectively thinks about behavior on a longer time scale, starting with immediately before to getting to evolutionary origin. The author starts by posing questions on how our behavior originates. The first 5 chapters highlight this point and the author discusses topics from how the neuroscience of decisions works to how our the neural architecture is laid through our experiences. There is a lot of technical material which can be tough to follow, but there is an appendix which helps clarify the subject for those less familiar. Nonetheless Chapter 2 discusses the various parts of the brain and aspects of their evolution and has a lot of detail but is a core reference chapter for later in the book. The author then starts getting into hormones and regulation and how they impact our actions, there is a lot of discussion of myths and facts and one gets a sense of how complex the interactions are. The author discusses the adolescent brain and how it is still very much in development. Ideas like how accountable are youths get's discussed, these kinds of questions are posed and re-discussed throughout. The author discusses how the environment can influence behavior and some epigenetic ideas are discussed along side general brain development. The author discusses the basis of our political nature as well, in particular how people categorize other people and have internal Us vs Them delineations. How we frame who is an us and who is a them though is extremely variable and our characterization of groups is deemed to be largely constructed rather than innate. The author discusses how different societies have different levels of social interactions and consequentially how different people think about interacting with strangers depends heavily on how much social capital their respective societies have. The author discusses hierarchies and brings in his primatology expertise and discusses how different ape families manage their hierarchies and stress associated with such systems. Human hierarchical systems are discussed in this contexts and the author highlights that our current capitalistic hierarchical society is all new relative to hunter gatherer systems. The author discusses our systems of morality and where they originate; the author looks at cases of high generosity and discusses what parts of the brain were involved. There are lots of interesting facts to be read in these chapters, really fascinating material. The author discusses things like empathy and sympathy and how too much empathy gets in the way of prudent action. It is the dispassionate observer who ends up being more helpful on average. The author revisits the criminal justice system and discusses the deep flaws in how we might be thinking of right and wrong and responsibility; there are useful ideas to consider when thinking about policy. The author ends up by discussing our propensity for violence and war overtime. There are some great anecdotal stories from recent world wars on reconciliation as well as front line behavior when people weren't considering the enemy a them.
Behave is a pretty remarkable book. It is a combination of material from so many subjects, all of which are non-trivial, and it is put together remarkably well. For those interested in how people can behave, where our behavior comes from, what time scales are involved in our propensities and how flexible our responses are this is a must read. One should get a sense of optimism from this, despite science's progress on understanding behavior, we are nowhere close to claiming we have strong causal mechanisms that took a person from point a to b. There are correlated variables and we have some indication on where propensities come from but one still has room for individualism in this book. Very informative, very impressive.
So many big topics are covered in this book! I've picked some themes that resonated with my current understanding of what it is to be human. These are represented by some scant notes of mine clearly labeled as [jch note:s]. All quoted text is verbatum from the book, with p.Page number.
Resonating Themes: It's complicated! (Addressing Nature v. Nurture), Us v. Them, Autopilot (Free Will?) Brain Science, Income Inequality, Moral Foundations, Culture
Sapolsky is a great writer! The text is clearly presented by someone with a firm grasp on the tree of knowledge and how to pass it on. There are many noted os a personal nature, usually with a wonderful sense of humor. And there are many, many wonderful references such as "untruthiness".
It's Complicated! - That's the theme of the book.
p.248 "This is summarized wonderfully by the neurobiologist Donald Hebb: “It is no more appropriate to say things like characteristic A is more influenced by nature than nurture than . . . to say that the area of a rectangle is more influenced by its length than its width.” It’s appropriate to figure out if lengths or widths explain more of the variability in a population of rectangles. But not in individual ones."
Epilogue Bullet: " Genes aren’t about inevitabilities; they’re about potentials and vulnerabilities. And they don’t determine anything on their own. Gene/ environment interactions are everywhere. Evolution is most consequential when altering regulation of genes, rather than genes themselves."
Epilogue Bullet: " Adolescence shows us that the most interesting part of the brain evolved to be shaped minimally by genes and maximally by experience; that’s how we learn—context, context, context."
Epilogue Bullet: " We are constantly being shaped by seemingly irrelevant stimuli, subliminal information, and internal forces we don’t know a thing about."
p.267 Figure from Cluture Gender and Math ( Luigi Guiso et al. ) showing girls better at math in Iceland
Epilogue Bullet: " Brains and cultures coevolve."
p.92 "Words have power. They can save, cure, uplift, devastate, deflate, and kill. And unconscious priming with words influences pro-and antisocial behaviors."
p.97 culture shapes what we see "Thus, culture literally shapes how and where you look at the world."
Us versus Them
Epilogue Bullet: " We implicitly divide the world into Us and Them, and prefer the former. We are easily manipulated, even subliminally and within seconds, as to who counts as each."
Epilogue Bullet: " Be dubious about someone who suggests that other types of people are like little crawly, infectious things."
p.388 IAT "Rapid, automatic biases against a Them can be demonstrated with the fiendishly clever Implicit Association Test (IAT). 3 Suppose you are unconsciously prejudiced against trolls. To simplify the IAT enormously: A computer screen flashes either pictures of humans or trolls or words with positive connotations (e.g., “honest”) or negative ones (“ deceitful”). Sometimes the rule is “If you see a human or a positive term, press the red button; if it’s a troll or a negative term, press the blue button.” And sometimes it’s “Human or negative term, press red; troll or positive term, press blue.” Because of your antitroll bias, pairing a troll with a positive term, or a human with a negative, is discordant and slightly distracting. Thus you pause for a few milliseconds before pressing a button."
p.629 "The core of that thought is Susan Fiske’s demonstration that automatic other-race-face amygdala responses can be undone when subjects think of that face as belonging to a person, not a Them. The ability to individuate even monolithic and deindividuated monsters can be remarkable."
Epilogue Bullet: " When humans invented socioeconomic status, they invented a way to subordinate like nothing that hierarchical primates had ever seen before."
p.144 "There’s wonderful context dependency to these effects. When a rat secretes tons of glucocorticoids because it’s terrified, dendrites atrophy in the hippocampus. However, if it secretes the same amount by voluntarily running on a running wheel, dendrites expand. Whether the amygdala is also activated seems to determine whether the hippocampus interprets the glucocorticoids as good or bad stress."
Sapolsky shares a thorough, science-backed explanation of how and why humans act how they act, and this text -- while quite long and academic -- is incredibly useful to professionals in a range of fields.
This was my "bible" when I worked as a product manager in consumer tech -- if you want to learn about feedback loops, motivation, competition, dopamine, and other factors / mechanics that help guide people towards doing what you want them to do, this is the text.
Practical utility aside, it's deeply interesting subject matter. It's a lengthy read, and not an all-in-one-sitting book, but I cannot praise this enough.