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Now available in paperback-a provocative new look at biology, evolution, and human behavior 'as disturbing [as it is] fascinating' (Publishers Weekly).
Why are most neurosurgeons male and most kindergarten teachers female? Why aren't there more women on death row? Why do so many male politicians ruin their careers with sex scandals? Why and how do we really fall in love? This engaging book uses the latest research from the field of evolutionary psychology to shed light on why we do the things we do-from life plans to everyday decisions. With a healthy disregard for political correctness, Miller and Kanazawa reexamine the fact that our brains and bodies are hardwired to carry out an evolutionary mission? an inescapable human nature that actually stopped evolving about 10,000 years ago.
That mouthful of a title says it all. According to Kanazawa, a media-savvy researcher whose studies of "beautiful people" have been covered by the BBC and the New York Times, and the late Miller, a professor of social psychology, evolutionary psychology explains almost everything about human behavior. Proponents of what they call "the Standard Social Science Model" believe that the human mind is exempt from biological pressures, while evolutionary psychologists hold that people are an animal species driven by animal needs. The authors suggest that human evolution stopped when agriculture began changing the world much faster than the world could change us, and now 10,000-year-old impulses to find the right mate and produce healthy offspring control nearly every aspect of our existence, from choosing jobs to religious belief. This accessible book opens the youthful field of evolutionary psychology wide for examination, with results often as disturbing as they are fascinating. (Sept. 4)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationThe_Reverend
Posted March 16, 2009
This is one of the best scholarly books I have ever read. A solid treatise on the state of Evolutionary Psychology today that is unflinching and certainly not politically correct. Everything from sexual behavior to why we steal and kill and go to war.
For those who look around and wonder why people do some of the strange things we do in everyday life, this book will make you say "OK, I get it now". Occasionally there are some far-fetched ideas, and the book doesn't have all the answers (especially were explaining lesbians is concerned) but overall, it would be hard for me to think that someone could read this book and not have at least some of their ideas about humanity changed in some way.
This book is my new Bible.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 27, 2010
Anyone who has written a negative review about this book has not accepted the reality of who (as men and women) we really are. We are animals. It is Uptopian to believe otherwise.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.alaskagrown
Posted December 24, 2008
I am mortified that by purchasing this book, I might have supported the "research" of pseudo-scientist Satoshi Kanazawa, the principle author. I urge potential buyers to at least google Kanazawa, whose research shows that African countries are entrenched in poverty because of the low IQs of Africans, that women (regardless of race or culture) want to look like Barbie (the blond one) and that men enjoy pornography because their feeble brains can't distinguish between porn and the real thing. I will leave it to the adventurous reader to find the even more ridiculous theory for why women don't like porn. Kanazawa begins with tenuous assumptions of what IS and uses some tricky methods of backwards induction and guesses of what WAS to explain WHY. He combines nuggets of research conducted by people who seem to understand the scientific method with his own half-baked ideas to reveal his true bigotry. Please, don't fall for the catchy title like I did. Kanazawa is trying to bring eugenics and misogyny back into legitimate scientific discourse, and while I am all for freedom of speech, I sure wish I hadn't bought the book.
1 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 24, 2013
The 'sample' doesn't include any content from the book !
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.tootsieCP
Posted August 8, 2009
I read half of this book and lost interest. I would not recommend it new; buy it used.
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Overview
Now available in paperback-a provocative new look at biology, evolution, and human behavior 'as disturbing [as it is] fascinating' (Publishers Weekly).
Why are most neurosurgeons male and most kindergarten teachers female? Why aren't there more women on death row? Why do so many male politicians ruin their careers with sex scandals? Why and how do we really fall in love? This engaging book uses the latest research from the field of evolutionary psychology to shed light on why we...