The Biology of Good and Evil. How Science Explains Our Actions

As the famous primatologist and neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky says, if you want to understand human behavior and the nature of good or bad deeds, you will have to figure out literally everything — both what happened a second before and what happened millions of years ago. In the book, the author examines a huge number of factors influencing our behavior step by step — I could say, in a chronological slice — and in great detail. How does our brain work? What does the amygdala respond to, and what should we thank the prefrontal cortex for? What does the insula "hate"? Why do London taxi drivers have an enlarged hippocampus? How are the lengths of the index and ring fingers related to the amount of prenatal testosterone? How do adolescents differ from children and adults from the perspective of neurobiology? Are there "pure" altruists? What is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation? Is there free will? How do complex social connections influence our behavior and decision-making? And this is just a small part of the questions examined in the monumental work of a well-known scientist.