Continue reading with Headway app
Continue the summaryWhat’s inside
Learn about the biology of emotions and human behavior. Understand why you feel the way you do, and become more emotionally intelligent.
Key points
1
The analysis of one’s life can predict human behavior
Imagine a world without aggression, where we stopped Hitler and prevented 9/11. Unfortunately, it’s impossible, but we can explore the motives and influences to lessen tension and create a better place for the next generations. Nowadays, human violence decreased compared to the past centuries, and Sapolsky feels hopeful about the future.
Sapolsky provides us with a full-scale analysis of human behavior proved by practical observations and research in neuroscience, biology, behaviorism, ethology, and social studies. For newbies in the neurosciences, topics cover the information gradually evolving its complexity.
Sapolsky provides us with a full-scale analysis of human behavior proved by practical observations and research in neuroscience, biology, behaviorism, ethology, and social studies. For newbies in the neurosciences, topics cover the information gradually evolving its complexity.
We hate and fear the wrong kind of violence, violence in the wrong context. Because violence in the right context is different. We pay good money to watch it in a stadium, we teach our kids to fight back… ~ Robert M. Sapolsky
This summary focuses on one significant aspect and shows human behavior’s connections and ruling patterns. Starting from the brain structure and its functions, we will move to the next stop of the stereotypes about hormones (to break them). Then, we will discover what’s happening with toddlers inside and outside the mother's womb to answer whether it’s possible to ‘cure’ evilness.
Do we indeed have free will, or is our behavior always triggered? There might be changes to the current justice system, including implementing scientific approaches. While the summary provides us with theory, it also gives us a chance to explore our own cultural and personal background that defines our characters now. Understanding universal rules makes decision-making more manageable, helps obtain desired results in professional and private life, and builds win-win relationships with others.
Do we indeed have free will, or is our behavior always triggered? There might be changes to the current justice system, including implementing scientific approaches. While the summary provides us with theory, it also gives us a chance to explore our own cultural and personal background that defines our characters now. Understanding universal rules makes decision-making more manageable, helps obtain desired results in professional and private life, and builds win-win relationships with others.
The brain size varies across adults and correlates with the level of intelligence — that moment when size matters.
2
The brain is a complex structure with layers
To analyze behavior, we must look at our brain from numerous levels: the nervous system, sensory stimuli, and hormones. The list can extend to the evolutionary processes that occurred millions of years before. This summary focuses on the key elements that define our best and worst behavior. The question, to begin with, is — why did that behavior occur?
Other chapters are waiting for you in the app
3
Sensory information alters human behavior in different ways
4
Testosterone feels pleasurable because it boosts our confidence
5
Teenagers show increased emotionality in comparison to children and adults
6
Not poverty but inequality leads to violence due to the lack of trust
7
Non-literal things can literally harm us
8
Conclusion
You’ll learn
How the brain work defines our behavior
Ways our environment makes us aggressive
How emotions and hormones impact our conduct
To control our behavior the healthy way
