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Title details for Survival of the Friendliest by Brian Hare - Available

Survival of the Friendliest

Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity

by Brian Hare
Vanessa Woods
Audiobook
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A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique friendliness
“Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring—and a riveting read. Hare and Woods have written the perfect book for our time.”—Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens and co-author of Nudge
For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened?
Since Charles Darwin wrote about “evolutionary fitness,” the idea of fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human history. Advancing what they call the “self-domestication theory,” Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed Homo sapiens to thrive. 
But this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is threatened by an “outsider.” The threatening outsider is demoted to sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare’s groundbreaking research, developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest. 
Survival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 14, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593209837
      • File size: 175379 KB
      • Duration: 06:05:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Rene Ruiz's warm style welcomes listeners to this well-researched reconsideration of key evolutionary principles relating to human connection. He explains foundational concepts, such as survival of the fittest, in a smooth, easygoing manner that informs as it entertains. His precise pace makes the complex explanations of evolutionary theory more comprehensible. Ruiz even brings out the humor in chapters that explain dog behavior. Listeners will lose themselves in this armchair-lecture experience, and many may be surprised how much detail they retain after the production has ended. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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