Behave

This is second on my all time list behind Kahneman. This thing is huge, it's as close to a comprehensive multi-field discussion of human behavior I've seen, and it manages to stay coherent, well structured, and compelling throughout.

This book goes from the basic structure and biology of neurons, the brain, neurotransmitters and hormones, genetic elements of behavior, epigenetics, development of the brain and behavior from early in pregnancy through adolescence and how negative events (malnutrition, abuse, neglect) alter that development, a pretty damn in depth discussion of evolution and the various selection processes in play from survival of the individual to close family to the species as a whole, and how social structures and culture influence behavior just to lay the groundwork for how much goes into any single decision.

The second part starts to look into behavior closer to directly through the lens of research by psychology. It starts with in-group bias, with solid coverage of how researchers have manipulated whether people feel someone is an us or a them. Next is peer pressure. Excellent coverage of Milgram's electric shock work and the Stanford Prison Experiment. Really there's a lot here and touching on every subject in depth. What I will say is that the psychology, which is the material I'm most familiar with, is presented masterfully, engaging, does a good job of being clear on what the research does and doesn't say, and consistently refers back to the groundwork in the first part of the book.

There is a third part where he discusses what we should take away from all of this, and he loses me a bit at points in the discussion of the justice system. I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to say. But he comes back strong with discussions of how to work past large scale conflict including war and even genocide, then the overall message that we can use our understanding of context to frame things in ways that allow us to be better to the people around us and drive positive change. Overall with some very minor hiccups, he manages to keep a consistent thread throughout this absolutely insanely broad work. He doesn't just skim through topics. There's a solid level of depth throughout. The organization is excellent. To the best of my ability to determine, it's one of the best sourced books I've read. He does all this while keeping a light, not too serious tone and throwing in mild wit and wordplay in a way that adds to the level of engagement.


If that's not enough, the appendices are great too.

I've been struggling for two weeks, trying to figure out what to say about Behave. Sapolsky is one of my all-time heroes: kind, wise, eloquent, a great teacher. This is possibly his most important book, at least in the sense of material that everyone should know. Unfortunately, it's not his most readable one. It's dense, so rich in information that it's overwhelming—and I say that as someone who is already familiar with much of this material and who likes to stay informed. He writes clearly; humanely; but it's just too much at once. And despite that, I'm going to urge you to read it anyway. Take your time. Have a highlighter handy, be willing to dog-ear copiously. Go back and reread when you feel lost. And don't feel obligated to learn it all: you'll pick up enough along the way and, perhaps, change a little of how you see yourself and your fellow humans.As a side note, I read this while also reading Parker Palmer's [b:Healing the Heart of Democracy 10836406 Healing the Heart of Democracy The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit Parker J. Palmer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347421252s/10836406.jpg 15750551] and am dumbstruck by the parallels. Heartened by their common message of compassion and understanding.

All you could ever want to know about human behavior from a scientific perspective.

Looking at behavior through different lenses, Sapolsky slowly zooms out in time, going from neurons firing (milliseconds) to sensory inputs (seconds) to hormones (hours) to neural-plasticity (days, months) to epigenetics and genetics (your lifetime) to cultural programming (many many lifetimes) to evolution itself (humanity's lifetime). And the path is highlighted with summaries and anecdotes from the most famous scientific studies. The second half of the book talks about topics like Us-Them, hierarchy/obedience/resistance, morality, pain and empathy, what leads us to kill and the free will discourse.

Things I've learned:
- The prefrontal-cortex is the last part of our brain that matures (in the early twenties), therefore it's more prone to be influenced by nurture than nature. This is where our culture takes root, overrules our genes and influences our decision making.
- Ecology shapes culture. Asia, a continent build on rice, has a holistic world-view, as rice-agriculture requires the collaboration of the many. The west has a individualistic world-view in contrast.
- The brains of conservatives and progressives are indeed different!
- As soon as societies evolved into forming bigger groups, the need for a moralizing god emerged.

The writing is a lot more engaging as one might expect from a 700-page psychology book. Sapolsky is quite witty, which keeps it entertaining. Still took a while to get through though.