Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect - Hardcover

Lieberman, Matthew D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0307889092 ISBN 13: 9780307889096

Publisher: Crown Pub, 2013

Synopsis

We are profoundly social creatures – more than we know.

In Social, renowned psychologist Matthew Lieberman explores groundbreaking research in social neuroscience revealing that our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental, more basic, than our need for food or shelter. Because of this, our brain uses its spare time to learn about the social world – other people and our relation to them. It is believed that we must commit 10,000 hours to master a skill. According to Lieberman, each of us has spent 10,000 hours learning to make sense of people and groups by the time we are ten.

Social argues that our need to reach out to and connect with others is a primary driver behind our behavior. We believe that pain and pleasure alone guide our actions. Yet, new research using fMRI – including a great deal of original research conducted by Lieberman and his UCLA lab -- shows that our brains react to social pain and pleasure in much the same way as they do to physical pain and pleasure. Fortunately, the brain has evolved sophisticated mechanisms for securing our place in the social world. We have a unique ability to read other people’s minds, to figure out their hopes, fears, and motivations, allowing us to effectively coordinate our lives with one another. And our most private sense of who we are is intimately linked to the important people and groups in our lives. This wiring often leads us to restrain our selfish impulses for the greater good. These mechanisms lead to behavior that might seem irrational, but is really just the result of our deep social wiring and necessary for our success as a species.

Based on the latest cutting edge research, the findings in Social have important real-world implications. Our schools and businesses, for example, attempt to minimalize social distractions. But this is exactly the wrong thing to do to encourage engagement and learning, and literally shuts down the social brain, leaving powerful neuro-cognitive resources untapped. The insights revealed in this pioneering book suggest ways to improve learning in schools, make the workplace more productive, and improve our overall well-being.

About this title

Review:

This isn't just fascinating for its own sake. Lieberman has a social and political purpose. (Julian Baggini, Financial Times)

This is a compelling and thought-provoking book. (Grrl Scientist)

Lieberman animates our grey matter as a frenziedly active kernel looking for ways to synchronize our reflexes with others. (Amelia Walsh, The Observer)

Matthew Liberman's book is good: it reads well, the structure is helpful and linear for the general-interest reader while also offering some depth for the detail-oriented bookworm or specialist. (Tristan Bekinschtein, Times Higher Education)

SOCIAL is the book I've been waiting for: a brilliant and beautiful exploration of how and why we are wired together, by one of the field's most prescient pioneers. (Daniel Gilbert, professor, Harvard University, bestselling author of Stumbling On Happiness)

This fascinating, beautifully written book brings the exciting research on our social nature and the brain to life (Shelley Taylor, distinguished professor, UCLA, author of The Tending Instinct)

About the Author:

Mathew D. Lieberman was trained at Harvard University and is a professor in the Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founding editor of the journalSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. In 2007, the American Psychological Association awarded him the Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, an award given to one social psychologist every two years. He is one of the foremost authorities in the world on the study of Social Neuroscience.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Pub
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0307889092
• ISBN 13: 9780307889096
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 374