Sapolsky has produced a quirky, opinionated and magisterial synthesis of psychology and neurobiology that integrates this complex subject more accessibly and completely than ever ... Behavioral biology is indeed complex, but Sapolsky simplifies the topic with a beautifully organized and well-stocked store of knowledge. He has such a light tone, so imperious a command of data and such a rich fund of anecdotes that we are swept swiftly along to the last third of the book ... Sapolsky proposes 10 strategies for reducing violence, all reasonable but none that justify the notion that science is the basis for societal advances toward less violence and higher morality...In this section Sapolsky becomes a partisan critic, including presenting a skeptical view about the supposed long-term decline of human violence ... If it took an unrealistic connection between science and society to motivate Sapolsky to write Behave, that is a small price. His book offers a wild and mind-opening ride into a better understanding of just where our behavior comes from. Darwin would have been thrilled.
Mr. Sapolsky’s concept is to examine behavior starting at its most immediate neural underpinnings, then trace it to progressively more distant causes, including hormonal, social and developmental ones, and ultimately to search out its evolutionary antecedents. To my knowledge, this hasn’t been done before in one book, and he succeeds magnificently ... The author’s comprehensive approach integrates controlled laboratory investigation with naturalistic observations and study. To his immense credit, he doesn’t omit cultural norms, social learning, the role of peer pressure or historical tradition. He also has a delightfully self-deprecating sense of humor ... It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.
Sapolsky is that rara avis who’s both eminent scientist and elegant prose stylist ... His new book is his magnum opus, but is also strikingly different from his earlier work, veering sharply toward hard science as it looms myriad strands of his ruminations on human behavior. The familiar, enchanting Sapolsky tropes are here — his warm, witty voice, a sleight of hand that unfolds the mysteries of cognition — but Behave keeps the bar high ... a stunning achievement and an invaluable addition to the canon of scientific literature, certain to kindle debate for years to come.
If you ever thought that neuroscience was deathly boring or too complicated for pleasurable reading, Behave will change your mind ...at about 100 pages in, you’ll begin to question whether that decision you made so many years ago not to go into the sciences might have been too hasty ... Sapolsky is so immensely comfortable explaining complicated things in accessible ways... What drives humans to harm each other or help each other? He finds the answers in our biology and takes readers on a journey through the nervous system, hormones, evolution and environment to make his argument ... Sapolsky leaves little surprises for his readers in the footnotes, which read like in-jokes from the lab ...Sapolsky has created an immensely readable, often hilarious romp through the multiple worlds of psychology, primatology, sociology and neurobiology to explain why we behave the way we do.
Sapolsky goes back through adolescence, childhood and gestation (including genetics), and, beyond the birth of the individual, to more distant causes still – those found in culture, evolutionary psychology, game theory and comparative zoology. He makes the book consistently entertaining, with an infectious excitement at the puzzles he explains, and wry dude-ish asides ... This book is a miraculous synthesis of scholarly domains, and at the same time laudably careful in its determination to point out at every step the limits of our knowledge ... But Sapolsky’s insistence on the truth of strict determinism poses wider problems for the way he frames the rest of his book ... It remains debatable, though, whether strict determinism is compatible with Sapolsky’s final message of hope for humanity.
Those answers may not satisfy strict sociobiologists on one hand or Heideggerians on the other, but they’re unfailingly provocative, as is Sapolsky’s closing observation that whenever we talk of human nature or natures, we’re talking about averages in a world of endless variation. An exemplary work of popular science, challenging but accessible.
Sapolsky takes complex ideas from the scientific literature, including his own research, and attempts to balance the pros and cons of every conclusion. He weaves science storytelling with humor to keep readers engaged while advancing his main point about the complexity and interconnectedness of all aspects of behavior ... Sapolsky’s big ideas deserve a wide audience and will likely shape thinking for some time.
