Unlock the Secrets of Human Behavior: Discover the Biology Behind Our Best and Worst Moments

Tetyana: I did not read the book yet but delivery and printing quality are very good

Canada on Nov 03, 2023

Karina Medeiros: Recomendo

Brazil on Oct 29, 2023

Danila S.: It's well written and very easy to read. It brings useful informations.

Germany on Aug 29, 2023

DK53880: Sapolsky is witty, intelligent and quite knowledgeable of his subject matter. I never understood what was meant by "identifying with the mind" or why "free will is an illusion". I also didn't understand what amygdala hijack was either even though I had heard about it a lot. All of this is explained and more. The connection between us humans and other animals was profoundly moving and I loved the last half of the book as Sapolsky explains major themes of human behavior such as compassion, empathy, hate, aggression, peace, war and many others and helps us understand what is happening within our brains that drives these behaviors.

I found the reviews by obvious conservatives (most of the 1 & 2 star folks) quite funny. Clearly they didn't read the entire book. Because one thing Sapolsky notes over and over and over....the brain is PLASTIC. It can change depending on how much we "feed" it new information. So even when he notes that conservatives tend toward stupidity, he explains what is happening within their brains that dictates this. And it's important to note they were not born this way, but became this way in response to their environment, mostly to the fear of not...

United States on Aug 09, 2023

Book is amazing but they have reduced the quality according to price.: They have reduced the quality according to the price .

India on Jul 03, 2023

Dennis Merimsky: After 800 pages of reading about the interface between our biology and our behavior, I had hoped that I would be more knowledgeable about what causes what, but instead I was even more confused. In the words of Sapolsky It’s complicated.” Nothing seems to cause anything; instead everything just modulates something else. Scientists keep saying, “We used to think X, but now we realize that . . "
Sapolsky is a superb scientist and a great lecturer, who is much better in explaining the details than seeing the big picture. This book, highlights various scientific breakthroughs at the beginning of most chapters and then demolishes or severely curtails the evidence for their validity by the end of those chapters, becomes hard to read, once you understand the scheme of things We learn that brain chemistry, hormones, sensory cues, prenatal environment, early experience, genes, both biological and cultural evolution, and ecological pressures, among other things, all influence our behavior. The brain is just the final common pathway, which mediates all these factors from our recent to the distant evolutionary past , while each factor encapsulates all the influences of previous...

United States on Jan 26, 2022

G. Crackers: J'avais commencé à regarder les vidéos des cours de Sapolsky à Stanford (disponibles gratuitement sur Youtube). Son talent de vulgarisateur et son approche originale de la biologie et de la génétique m'ont motivé à acheter ce livre.

Pour la forme :

Contrairement à beaucoup d'ouvrages du genre, celui de Sapolsky a le mérite d'être bien écrit, clair et parfois drôle. L'auteur ne cache jamais les complexités du sujet et de certains résultats quand il y en a, ce qui est très bienveillant vis-à-vis des non-spécialistes, mais ce qui conduit aussi parfois à des digressions. Digressions qui nuisent un peu à la qualité globale du livre, qui aurait dû être mieux édité et plus compact (au bout d'un moment on étouffe sous les notes de bas de page où l'auteur se laisse aller à des remarques anecdotiques inutiles).

Pour le contenu :

Le livre explique principalement des mécanismes derrière les différents comportements humains, qu'il s'agisse d'actions héroïques, intelligentes, stupides ou meurtrières.
Les 10 premiers chapitres sont bien organisés et suivent un ordre chronologique inversé, depuis les activations neurales qui...

France on Aug 27, 2018