How many friends does one person need? : Dunbar's number and other evolutionary quirks / Robin Dunbar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dunbar, R. I. M. (Robin Ian MacDonald), 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social psychology.

Human behavior.

Evolution.

Physical Description:

vi, 302 p.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why do men talk and women gossip, and which is better for you? Why is monogamy a drain on the brain? And why should you be suspicious of someone who has more than 150 friends on Facebook? We are the product of our evolutionary history, and this history colors our everyday lives—from why we joke to the depth of our religious beliefs. In How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Robin Dunbar uses groundbreaking experiments that have forever changed the way evolutionary biologists explain how the distant past underpins our current ­behavior. We know so much more now than Darwin ever did, but the core of modern evolutionary theory lies firmly in Darwin’s elegantly simple idea: organisms behave in ways that enhance the frequency with which genes are passed on to future generations. This idea is at the heart of Dunbar’s book, which seeks to explain why humans behave as they do. Stimulating, provocative, and immensely enjoyable, his book invites you to explore the number of friends you have, whether you have your father’s brain or your mother’s, whether morning sickness might actually be good for you, why Barack Obama’s 2008 victory was a foregone conclusion, what Gaelic has to do with frankincense, and why we laugh. In the process, Dunbar examines the role of religion in human evolution, the fact that most of us have unexpectedly famous ancestors, and why men and women never seem able to see eye to eye on color.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

Chapter 2: The Monogamous Brain

Chapter 3: Dunbar's Number

Chapter 4: Kith and Kin

Chapter 5: The Ancestors that Still Haunt Us

Chapter 6: Bonds that Bind

Chapter 7: Why Gossip is Good for You

Chapter 8: Scars of Evolution

Chapter 9: Who'd Mess with Evolution?

Chapter 10: The Darwin Wars

Chapter 11: So Near, and Yet So Far

Chapter 12: Farewell, Cousins

Chapter 13: Stone Age Psychology

Chapter 14: Natural Minds

Chapter 15: How to Join the Culture Club

Chapter 16: Be Smart . . . Live Longer

Chapter 17: Beautiful Science

Chapter 18: Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Chapter 19: Eskimos Rub Noses

Chapter 20: Your Cheating Heart

Chapter 21: Morality on the Brain

Chapter 22: How Evolution Found God

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0-674-05932-8

OCLC:

680039068