#18 in Behavioral sciences books
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Reddit mentions of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Sentiment score: 3
Reddit mentions: 3

We found 3 Reddit mentions of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. Here are the top ones.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
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Release dateMay 2017

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Found 3 comments on Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst:

u/georgejetsonn · 6 pointsr/funny

If you want to find out more on behavior and experiments like these and what they can tell about humans, then Behave by Robert Sapolsky is the book to go for.

Complex, deep and able to present both sides of a scientific argument with some humorous sprinkling, it is a very important book that helps understand behavior from all angles (neurotransmitters, hormones, genes, culture, environment).

The cucumber/grape experiment is mentioned in the book in a chapter about morality and fairness. Fascinating read.

u/Ambitious_Dust · 6 pointsr/atheism

Behavior is not explained by the theory of free will. We know free will to be an illusion - it feels that way but reality suggests something far less independent. As scientists develop more and more ways to explore the living human brain, we can see decision making processes at work. Studies have revealed unexpected things about human agency, moral responsibility, and consciousness in general.

For example, Benjamin Libet developed a fascinating experiment in which he could predict the so-called "free will choice" of a subject --- before they themselves decided what their choice would be. As of 2008, the upcoming outcome of a decision could be found in study of the brain activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 7 seconds before the subject was aware of their decision (wiki).

From invasive tumors to studying neuroscience in detail, the idea of a metaphorical homunculus, a little person living inside but apart from our brains, piloting our actions, has fallen away as evidence simply cannot support it.

u/subaruvagabond · 1 pointr/neuroscience

Mostly commenting here in case someone else comes along with a more proper answer...

I'm assuming you're asking for literature, as in the studies he's citing as he goes along, etc. I don't have that, but you can probably get a lot of them from looking at the "textbooks" for the class. In the first lecture, he mentions these 2 books as essentially the "textbooks" for the course:

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Robert Sapolsky

Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick

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Later on, he also brings up Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science

And since that lecture series was done, in 2017, Sapolsky published a book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, which has TONS of overlap with the lecture series. He doesn't go into the same exact stuff, especially in the later chapters versus the later lectures, but he follows the exact same pattern of explaining the biology of human behaviors. He even tells a lot of the same stories and personal insights.

It wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of the literature he cites in the lectures are all referenced across those books, too, so it would be a totally valuable avenue to dig in on. I haven't personally read through the first two all the way yet (I'm about halfway through Zebras right now). Behave is worth reading in addition to the lectures, despite the huge overlap, imho, and probably lists most of the same studies he cites in its Notes section.