Behave

The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst. Why do human beings behave as they do?

We are capable of savage acts of violence but also spectacular feats of kindness: is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other?

Every act of human behaviour has multiple layers of causation, spiralling back seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, even centuries, right back to the dawn of time and the origins of our species. In the epic sweep of history, how does our biology affect the arc of war and peace, justice and persecution? How have our brains evolved alongside our cultures?

This is the exhilarating story of human morality and the science underpinning the biggest question of all: what makes us human?

"It's no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read."
Wall Street Journal

Introduction
The Behavior
One Second Before
Seconds to Minutes Before
Hours to Days Before
Days to Months Before
Adolesccence; or, dude, where's my frontal cortex?
Back to the crib, back to the womb
Back to when you were just a fertilized egg
Centuries to millennia before
The evolution of behavior
Us Versus them
Hierarchy, obedience, and resistance
Mortality and doing the right thing, once you've figured out what that is
Feeling someone's pain, understanding someone's pain, alleviating someone's pain
Metaphors we kill by
Biology, the criminal justice system, and (oh, why not?) free will
War and peace
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Neuroscience
Appendix 2: The Basics of Endocrinology
Appendix 3: Protein Basics
Glossary of Abbreviations
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index