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Elgesys: Kaip mokslas paaiškina geriausius ir blogiausius mūsų poelgius by Robert M. Sapolsky
ali1311's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
This book was good, but boy was it long. It definitely feels like a better book to read than listen to because there was so much science that sometimes it was hard to keep up. Otherwise, I think this book was informative and interesting, but it was sort of bland. Kind of just stating facts and studies, many of which were really interesting, and I think the way the info was organized was good, but it didn't leave much of an impact. I think the book lacked some conviction, which made it somewhat boring to read despite the fascinating nature of the science presented. Either way, it was informative and compelling, it just needed a little more oomph for me.
yoriv's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best books I've ever read. It goes into detail why we act the way we do. Starting from what influences your actions seconds to minutes before, what your puberty has to do with it, to how much your mothers behavior mattered when you were still a fetus.
It goes deeper into what hormones (testosterone/estrogen) can influence aggression and all the misconceptions about them.
It talks about Us Vs. Them, how we're more eager to help/cooperate with someone that we classify as an "Us".
It goes deeper into what hormones (testosterone/estrogen) can influence aggression and all the misconceptions about them.
It talks about Us Vs. Them, how we're more eager to help/cooperate with someone that we classify as an "Us".
35lauriemb's review against another edition
5.0
I probably read the equivalent of about half this book. He is an excellent writer and presents this difficult information to the general population in a way that is more easily understood than reading from a textbook. There were some sections of the book that didn't grab my interest while other sections were fascinating.
a_tang's review against another edition
4.0
Have you ever wondered why people do the things they do? Why is it that sometimes knowing what the right thing is does not equate to actually doing the right thing? Or how are we the species that produced the likes of both Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler? Or to what extent do hormones and genes and all that affect how we act, really?
Well, Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky did. And not only that, he decided to write a whole book about it.
Sapolsky, a renowned primatologist and neuroscientist with extensive field experience with baboons in Africa, takes us by the hand through a grand voyage throughout the spectrum of human behaviour. He invites us to consider both how our biological nature and environment shape our actions, and what does that mean for us as individuals and as a species. All of that with a goofy grin and a silly joke under his sleeve, of course.
The result is Behave, a book that is both a wealth of knowledge and a delight to read. Sapolsky knows how to balance difficult topics with enough comic relief not to tire out our brains (or, as we learn in the book, our prefrontal-cortexes) too much. Numerous footnotes provide some extra information, whether it be a clarification, an interesting fact, an anecdote or a well placed joke.
Behave's 14 chapters can be divided in two parts. The first seven are very technical. They explore the factors that influence an specific behaviour, starting with the synapses between neurons all the way through hormones, genes and childhood development to the cultural and societal environment. They are very, very fact heavy, and proof of that is that they have three different appendixes just so that you can understand the base concepts discussed in the main chapters. Luckily, Sapolsky is a first class communicator and he manages to turn otherwise difficult topics into merely challenging ones. Still, understanding some of them require quite some effort and I found myself reading a couple of paragraphs twice.
The second part is devoted to a deeper inspection of specific frames of particularly human behaviours, such as morality, us-vs-them mentality and empathy. It is in these chapters that Sapolsky's experience as a primatologist comes in very handily, comparing our actions and those of our primate cousins (baboons, bonobos and chimpanzees pop up the most often). It is also here that, having the knowledge basis from the previous part, the most interesting conclusions are drawn. Finally, he puts forward his own views on what all these means for the (American) Criminal Justice System, free will (more on that later) and the future of our behaviour us as a species.
All this, as you have probably realised, is an awful lot of topics to cover, but Sapolsky manages to do so without being boring or (too) confusing us; no small feat. He manages to do so by engaging us with a style that is equal parts authoritative and warm: one moment it would be clear that I was reading a master on his field, and the next I felt as though I was reading something written by a dear friend. In particular, Sapolsky manages to squeeze in an abundance of jokes that help make the text easier to digest (including the funniest use of the phrase "tempted by Satan" I have ever read). Notably, this does not exclude moments of seriousness. Some of the most impressive parts of this book are the pictures of women murdered in honor-killings in chapter 9 and his description of the Romanian institution kids in chapter 8.
That's enough praise. Now on to some criticism.
Lets start where we just left. Sapolsky's style is not perfect. He has somewhat of an over-reliance on the catchphrase "stay tuned", for example, and after a while some parts start to feel a tad repetitive. However, given the length and depth of the topics explored these little quirks are understandable.
There is also the issue of controversies surrounding some of the studies cited. While Sapolsky addresses many of them in the same chapter they are introduced, there are several that are not. I first realised this when the "Legalizing Abortion Decreases Future Criminality" study came up, but no replication controversy was mentioned, and I found out there were more when I read Matt's review. This rather casts a shadow on the credibility of some of the books contents. Were the controversies not mentioned because Sapolsky didn't deem them important enough or did he simply not know of them? The thing is, as an outsider to the field, I have no way of knowing whether it was one or the other.
So where does that leave me? I think that, although there is some loss of credibility, it is still a very interesting book and even if it were to happen that half of it was wrong it would still make for a worthwhile read. Gathering all those sources is a feat on itself, and its engaging style will ensure you won't get bored halfway through. If there are some lessons I have learned from Behave, is that the reasons why we do things are more complicated than they seem, that context is everything to understand a behaviour, and, in Sapolsky's own words, "nothing seems to cause anything; instead everything just modulates something else".
Well, Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky did. And not only that, he decided to write a whole book about it.
Sapolsky, a renowned primatologist and neuroscientist with extensive field experience with baboons in Africa, takes us by the hand through a grand voyage throughout the spectrum of human behaviour. He invites us to consider both how our biological nature and environment shape our actions, and what does that mean for us as individuals and as a species. All of that with a goofy grin and a silly joke under his sleeve, of course.
The result is Behave, a book that is both a wealth of knowledge and a delight to read. Sapolsky knows how to balance difficult topics with enough comic relief not to tire out our brains (or, as we learn in the book, our prefrontal-cortexes) too much. Numerous footnotes provide some extra information, whether it be a clarification, an interesting fact, an anecdote or a well placed joke.
Behave's 14 chapters can be divided in two parts. The first seven are very technical. They explore the factors that influence an specific behaviour, starting with the synapses between neurons all the way through hormones, genes and childhood development to the cultural and societal environment. They are very, very fact heavy, and proof of that is that they have three different appendixes just so that you can understand the base concepts discussed in the main chapters. Luckily, Sapolsky is a first class communicator and he manages to turn otherwise difficult topics into merely challenging ones. Still, understanding some of them require quite some effort and I found myself reading a couple of paragraphs twice.
The second part is devoted to a deeper inspection of specific frames of particularly human behaviours, such as morality, us-vs-them mentality and empathy. It is in these chapters that Sapolsky's experience as a primatologist comes in very handily, comparing our actions and those of our primate cousins (baboons, bonobos and chimpanzees pop up the most often). It is also here that, having the knowledge basis from the previous part, the most interesting conclusions are drawn. Finally, he puts forward his own views on what all these means for the (American) Criminal Justice System, free will (more on that later) and the future of our behaviour us as a species.
All this, as you have probably realised, is an awful lot of topics to cover, but Sapolsky manages to do so without being boring or (too) confusing us; no small feat. He manages to do so by engaging us with a style that is equal parts authoritative and warm: one moment it would be clear that I was reading a master on his field, and the next I felt as though I was reading something written by a dear friend. In particular, Sapolsky manages to squeeze in an abundance of jokes that help make the text easier to digest (including the funniest use of the phrase "tempted by Satan" I have ever read). Notably, this does not exclude moments of seriousness. Some of the most impressive parts of this book are the pictures of women murdered in honor-killings in chapter 9 and his description of the Romanian institution kids in chapter 8.
That's enough praise. Now on to some criticism.
Lets start where we just left. Sapolsky's style is not perfect. He has somewhat of an over-reliance on the catchphrase "stay tuned", for example, and after a while some parts start to feel a tad repetitive. However, given the length and depth of the topics explored these little quirks are understandable.
There is also the issue of controversies surrounding some of the studies cited. While Sapolsky addresses many of them in the same chapter they are introduced, there are several that are not. I first realised this when the "Legalizing Abortion Decreases Future Criminality" study came up, but no replication controversy was mentioned, and I found out there were more when I read Matt's review. This rather casts a shadow on the credibility of some of the books contents. Were the controversies not mentioned because Sapolsky didn't deem them important enough or did he simply not know of them? The thing is, as an outsider to the field, I have no way of knowing whether it was one or the other.
So where does that leave me? I think that, although there is some loss of credibility, it is still a very interesting book and even if it were to happen that half of it was wrong it would still make for a worthwhile read. Gathering all those sources is a feat on itself, and its engaging style will ensure you won't get bored halfway through. If there are some lessons I have learned from Behave, is that the reasons why we do things are more complicated than they seem, that context is everything to understand a behaviour, and, in Sapolsky's own words, "nothing seems to cause anything; instead everything just modulates something else".
sxrxhtonin_'s review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Deeply funny. An incredible achievement, has changed how I think about my own outlook and how I view other people’s behaviours profoundly. cannot recommend this enough