Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Fair warning: this book is not for everyone. It’s over 1000 pages long, extremely complicated, full of qualifications and nuances, frequently transitions from one topic to the next, and makes you forget almost as much as it makes you learn. But if you can see it all the way to the end, you deserve to feel proud. This book is an encyclopaedic crash course in neuroscience, sociobiology, philosophy and human morality all rolled into one massive treatise seeking to answer the question: do we humans take decisions of our own free will or does our biology and genealogy do it for us? Are we even responsible for our best and worst behaviours; how can we enhance the former and suppress the latter? Predictably, there is no easy answer but Sapolsky provides both the templates and the catalysts to help answer the question as objectively as possible. His erudition, width and depth of knowledge - and the welcome doses of riotous humour - make him as good an author as he is scientist. One wished he did not complicate every issue with a near-infinite supply of opposing, qualifying and modifying examples - even when they are not always central to the theme under discussion - as it leaves one reeling at the end as to what conclusion to actually draw. It does become clearer as you progress but the process would be more friction-less if the author just recognised that most of us (lay people) can’t actually swim underwater. That apart, this is just a delightful book - full of powerful examples, glittering pearls of knowledge, and those indescribably joyous explanations when something you have always ‘known’ turns out to have a deep, scientific basis. It is also a somewhat encouraging book, as far as the future of our species is concerned, as Sapolosky tries to show that over the centuries and millennia of human existence our best behaviours are becoming more common and ubiquitous and our worst ones a little less so. It cannot be ignored however, that global events over the last 5-7 years, since this book was written, are proving somewhat contrary to this premise. There are wars in several regions of the planet, time-honoured institutions like the UN, WTO, ICJ underpinning the practices of so-called “anonymous pro-sociality” are crumbling, Us-Them dichotomies are widening, we seem to be losing the fight against climate change, and so on. Hopefully, some of them will prove to be just temporary wrinkles in an otherwise upward path. If not, Dr Sapolsky will have to produce a revised edition!

Amazing book. It goes into details around how the brains thinks and how it evolves over time. Pretty long book but worth reading. Lots of anecdotes are provided from scientific experiments and relevant contexts are provided.

Since the fond size is very small, certainly the reading might be a laborious task. Hence Kindle edition is suggested

Good read

good book and price

A journey of few years has come to , what feels like a destination. Reading human behavior books I can lay hands on - books by Robert Cialdini, Eric Berne, Viktor Frankl, Richard Thaler, Dan Ariely, Chip & Dan Heath, Daniel Kahneman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi etc and to have finally found 'Behave' has given an enormous exhilaration. The dots are now connected, fringes merged, edges melded - its big picture finally. A book I suppose I will return time to time. Reading the above sounds more like a thank you note to Robert Sapolsky than a review. I suppose that was the subconscious intent anyway! Edit on Aug 2024 : Ok, few months passed and now I have read few other "full spectrum" human behavior books. One was referred in this book itself - The righteous mind by Jonathan Haidt. It had more human and emotion leanings to it. Then, serendipity led me to 'Humankind: A hopeful history' by Rutger Bergman. The spectrum feels more complete and meaningful now.

Bought it for a friend, received it in a good condition. Good prints and a interesting content if you are bio nerd.

Very knowledgeable.

Behave is a book full of information about human aggression. Even though Prof. Sapolsky does not provide new solutions to deal with human aggression, he tells us about its biological roots and makes us look at the aggressors with a broader understanding. Our behaviours are more complex than what a single factor explanation can provide. The reviewer feels that the author does not discuss the democracy as a possible solution to the aggression as a societal problem. The reviewer also finds that the book could have appreciated the role of Lamarckian inheritance in some behavioural traits rather than being somewhat dismissive. This is a valuable addition to any collection of books. (This is only a summary of the full review posted on Humanities Commons.)

great

A good book

Love the quality of the paper and the cover and printing , also content is amazing must read

A strong look into the biology of behavior like this is a platform to rethink why we and others do the things that we do. I find myself reflecting on the systems within me and their affect on what I do,or am about to do. Like understanding the lingering effects in the lambic system rather than blaming my “self” for flaws, or at least giving myself new angles to contemplate those flaws, from perspectives milli second to millions of years before the action is taken. A better read than ‘Why Zebras don’t get ulcers” which is frequently referred to in the authors wonderful lectures from Stanford available online. That seems to be more narrowly and technically about stress while this book and the lectures have a wonderfully wider ranges. It is worth listening to some of the lectures (all free)to get a feel for the rhythm and humor of his speech. The sense of hearing his voice while reading made an enjoyable read all the more so.