Behave

Psychology

Print length: 790 pagesPenguin Press, 2017

Description

Why does a person perform one action rather than another—whether a reflexive gesture, an act of compassion, or an eruption of violence? Robert M. Sapolsky answers by moving backward through time. He begins with the brain activity occurring seconds before behavior, then considers sensory cues, hormones, development, genes, culture, and the evolutionary pressures operating across millennia. This layered method resists explanations that assign any act to a single cause. Along the way, Sapolsky applies biology to tribalism, hierarchy, xenophobia, morality, war, peace, and debates over free will. Behave is a wide-ranging work of scientific synthesis that shows human conduct emerging from continual interaction among bodies, environments, personal histories, and inherited social worlds.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dense · Technical · Witty

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Irreverent · Philosophical

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 5 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 3 / 5

Themes

FreedomKnowledge and truthMoralityPolitics and ideologyPowerWar

About Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky is an American scientist and author who teaches biological sciences, neurology, and neurological sciences at Stanford University. His popular science writing examines behavior and health by connecting processes at very different scales, from brain activity and hormones to development, culture, and evolution. Behave displays this layered method in its account of human action, while Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers traces how an emergency stress response can damage the body when it becomes chronic. A Primate’s Memoir brings personal field experience into the same inquiry, combining observations of baboon social life with physiological research. Across these books, Sapolsky makes complex biological systems accessible without isolating them from social context.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Penguin Press
Language: English
ISBN: 9781594205071

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