Behave

Every act of violence or kindness has causes stretching back seconds, years and millennia, and Robert Sapolsky follows all of them. Behave works backwards from a single human action, examining first what the brain did a second beforehand, then the hormones of the preceding hours, then adolescent development, childhood environment, genes, culture and finally evolutionary history. Neuroscience, endocrinology, genetics, anthropology and sociology are all recruited, and the tone stays conversational even where the material is dense enough to slow anyone down. The structure in short: • A framework that moves outward in time from one behaviour • Research on aggression, empathy, morality and group loyalty • Serious treatment of free will and where responsibility sits • Written by a neuroscientist with a long record of primate field work Suited to readers of psychology, biology and behavioural science. Published by Vintage and available from Boipoka.