The Moral Molecule: How Trust Works

by Paul J. Zak

Overview

A Revolution in the Science of Good and Evil

Why do some people give freely while others are cold hearted?

Why do some people cheat and steal while others you can trust with your life?

Why are some husbands more faithful than others—and why do women tend to be more generous than men?

Could they key to moral behavior lie with a single molecule?

From the bucolic English countryside to the highlands of Papua New Guinea, from labs in Switzerland to his campus in Souther California, Dr. Paul Zak recounts his extraordinary stories and sets out, for the first time, his revolutionary theory of moral behavior.  Accessible and electrifying, The Moral Molecule reveals nothing less than the origins of our most human qualities—empathy, happiness, and the kindness of strangers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101585559
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/10/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	984,581
File size:	488 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

PAUL J. ZAK, Ph.D., is professor of economic psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University. As the founding director of Claremont's Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, he is at the vanguard of neuroeconomics, a new discipline that integrates neuroscience and economics. He has a popular Pyschology Today blog called The Moral Molecule. He makes numerous media appearances, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Scientific American, Fast Company, and many others.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Vampire Wedding

Chapter 1 The Trust Game 1

From Short Cons to the Wealth of Nations

Chapter 2 Lobsters in Love 28

The Evolution of Trust

Chapter 3 Feeling Oxytocin 51

The Circuit That Brings Us HOME

Chapter 4 Bad Boys 76

The Complications of Gender

Chapter 5 The Disconnected 102

Victims of Abuse, Bad Genes, and Bad Ideas

Chapter 6 Where Sex Touches Religion 130

Stepping Outside the Self

Chapter 7 Moral Markets 158

Liquid Trust and Why Greed Isn't Good

Chapter 8 A Long and Happy Life 184

Mimes Creating Bottom-up Democracy

Notes 213

Acknowledgments 221

Index 225

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is an important book. Empathy, cooperation, trusting, heroism, stinginess, skepticism, anger, tough mindedness: Paul Zak unpacks these and other deeply human feelings with his pioneering research into brain chemistry and his keen journalist eye—exposing the dignity (and treachery) within our common human nature. You will never think about lobsters, gossip,"butt slapping" footballers, middle management or the recent housing bubble fiasco the same way again. It's a "must know" and a great read."
—Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love

“Paul Zak tells the remarkable story of how he discovered and explored the biochemistry of sympathy, love and trust with the narrative skill of a novelist. Philosophy, economics and biology have rarely been so entertaining.”
—Matt Ridley, author of Genome

“An ancient mammalian molecule prods us to bond with others. Paul Zak offers a most engaging account of this important discovery, bound to overthrow traditional thinking about human behavior, including economics and morality.”
—Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy

“Paul Zak's investigations into the best things in life are inspired, rigorous, and tremendous fun. We need more daring economists like him.”
— Tyler Cowen, author of An Economist Gets Lunch

“Zak has always been intrepid, with a sense of innocent but parsimonious wonder, and as a result his book on rather severe issues is nevertheless fresh—and moral.”
—Lionel Tiger, author of God’s Brain

Editorial Reviews

This is an important book. Empathy, cooperation, trusting, hero'sm, stinginess, skepticism, anger, tough mindedness: Paul Zak unpacks these and other deeply human feelings with his pioneering research into brain chemistry and his keen journalist eye—exposing the dignity (and treachery) within our common human nature. You will never think about lobsters, gossip,"butt slapping" footballers, middle management or the recent housing bubble fiasco the same way again. It's a "must know" and a great read."

—Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love

 
“Paul Zak tells the remarkable story of how he discovered and explored the biochemistry of sympathy, love and trust with the narrative skill of a novelist. Philosophy, economics and biology have rarely been so entertaining.”

—Matt Ridley, author of Genome

“An ancient mammalian molecule prods us to bond with others. Paul Zak offers a most engaging account of this important discovery, bound to overthrow traditional thinking about human behavior, including economics and morality.”

—Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy

 
“Paul Zak's investigations into the best things in life are inspired, rigorous, and tremendous fun. We need more daring economists like him.”

— Tyler Cowen, author of An Economist Gets Lunch

“Zak has always been intrepid, with a sense of innocent but parsimonious wonder, and as a result his book on rather severe issues is nevertheless fresh—and moral.”

—Lionel Tiger, author of God’s Brain

From the Publisher