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A review by nitin_kishore
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
5.0
This book is time consuming and science heavy. Some themes arise repeatedly which help you consolidate concepts. Baboon examples are prominent because the author spent 30 years amongst them since they spend most of their time engaging in social behavior. Social plasticity in primates can translate to humans and explain various behavioral patterns and how certain pseudoscience concepts or popular misconceptions can be used to explain away or rationalize behavior but not predict them.
Almost every fact presented in this book deals with the average of what's being measured and there are variations. Individual differences and interesting exceptions are present everywhere you look, in science
Genetics need transcriptions patterns and specific triggers or environmental factors for certain behaviors. It's not universal inevitability of behavior. There are some traumatic conditions that can be passed down generations and it is pretty much nurture and not simply nature. The prominence of the amygdala causing aggression and the prefrontal cortex helping us suppress those impulses through adolescence and misattribution to hormones, was enlightening to learn. Testosterone only makes those individuals aggressive who were previously aggressive. It is not a cause but an amplifier and it only happens in status seeking situations and not all the time. Oxytocin or the love hormone can be reason for violence in many cases through out history too.
The book also goes into use of these Neuroscience factoids in law and judicial courts with examples of warrior gene, free will and unstable mental state plea.
The latter part focuses on the "US vs Them" philosophy and what's the standard tactic employed by every nation or government, to sow seeds of this hatred. Rwandan genocide was a perfect example better suited than auschwitz and holocaust. More people should know about this incident. One amazing trick to stop visualizing "them" as homogenous evil mass group is to think what their favorite food might be. This disengages you from propaganda by realizing they are not all similar just like the "us". Since humans are between pair bonded and tournament species categories explains a lot about social and sexual infidelity.
I would recommend this as a definite read if you want a deeper glance at your species
Almost every fact presented in this book deals with the average of what's being measured and there are variations. Individual differences and interesting exceptions are present everywhere you look, in science
Genetics need transcriptions patterns and specific triggers or environmental factors for certain behaviors. It's not universal inevitability of behavior. There are some traumatic conditions that can be passed down generations and it is pretty much nurture and not simply nature. The prominence of the amygdala causing aggression and the prefrontal cortex helping us suppress those impulses through adolescence and misattribution to hormones, was enlightening to learn. Testosterone only makes those individuals aggressive who were previously aggressive. It is not a cause but an amplifier and it only happens in status seeking situations and not all the time. Oxytocin or the love hormone can be reason for violence in many cases through out history too.
The book also goes into use of these Neuroscience factoids in law and judicial courts with examples of warrior gene, free will and unstable mental state plea.
The latter part focuses on the "US vs Them" philosophy and what's the standard tactic employed by every nation or government, to sow seeds of this hatred. Rwandan genocide was a perfect example better suited than auschwitz and holocaust. More people should know about this incident. One amazing trick to stop visualizing "them" as homogenous evil mass group is to think what their favorite food might be. This disengages you from propaganda by realizing they are not all similar just like the "us". Since humans are between pair bonded and tournament species categories explains a lot about social and sexual infidelity.
I would recommend this as a definite read if you want a deeper glance at your species