Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Why do we act in the ways that we do?

This groundbreaking work, which took more than ten years to complete, is Robert Sapolsky's groundbreaking effort to address the subject in its entirety and from every perspective. Sapolsky's approach to storytelling is entertaining, but it also has a strong internal logic. He begins by examining the variables that influence an individual's response at the exact moment a behaviour takes place, then gradually travels back in time to eventually arrive at the complex evolutionary history of our species.

Thus, the neurobiological explanation falls under the first group. Something happens, whether it's a manifestation of human nature at its worst, finest, or somewhere in between. What was going through someone's mind just before the behaviour occurred? Then, a little earlier in time and with a somewhat broader field of view, Sapolsky asks, "What sight, sound, or smell caused the nervous system to produce that behaviour?" What hormones then changed that person's response to the stimuli that set off the nervous system hours or days earlier? He has now broadened our perspective to the point where we are attempting to explain what occurred by considering endocrinology, neurology, and the sensory aspects of our surroundings.

Sapolsky continues, "How was that behaviour influenced by changes in the structure of the nervous system over the course of the previous few months, by the adolescent, by the childhood, by the foetal life, and then back to that person's genetic makeup?" Finally, he broadens the perspective to include variables that go beyond a single person. What natural elements, which have been there for thousands of years, shaped that person's group and how did that culture develop? And so it goes, all the way back to millions of years ago in evolutionary terms.

The result is one of the most dazzling tours d'horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted, a majestic synthesis that harvests cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines to provide a subtle and nuanced perspective on why we ultimately do the things we do...for good and for ill. Sapolsky expands on this knowledge to address some of the most profound and difficult issues we face, including those pertaining to xenophobia and tribalism, hierarchy and competitiveness, morality and free will, and war and peace. Behave, a magnificent effort that is profoundly humanising and downright heroic in and of itself, is wise, compassionate, and sometimes extremely amusing.