Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts | Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan | The best book on sociobiology ever written.

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Mean Genes: From S...

	Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan Penguin (Non-Classics), 2001 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 112 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A GREAT COMBINATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND HUMOUR!

As one who has studied psychology, I found this book to be not only highly entertaining but to offer some basic understanding of the human psyche. Although this is not your typical self-help book, it does offer suggestions on how to curb those cravings, urges and temptations that come along in the course of our lifetime.

One will really find a chuckle over the sexual escapades of the common frog and the black widow spider! We may all wish our mates were more like the frog, and as for the black widow spider, so much for sensitive, romantic encounters. This book truly is a gem and gives readers an inside look at our primal instincts and what makes us tick. It is a book well worth reading, not only for the information it contains, but for the excellent humour as well.

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The best book on sociobiology ever written.

I've read various books on this general topic area, and most of them promote depression, cynicism, and a sense of helplessness before the powerful forces of evolution. Not this book! To the contrary, it is written in a funny (I actually found myself laughing and chuckling), lively, spritely, engaging manner that draws the reader in, and enlivens rather than depresses. The authors are both Harvard PhD's and they clearly know their stuff, right up to late-breaking frontier science. Yet they are so darned fun, it makes you want to go have a beer with them. Also, they do not come off like male chauvanists (important b/c for one thing, so many of the other writers on this subject seem like anti-feminists who misunderstand women), and they give lots of practical suggestions for how we can overcome the gnarlier behavioral tendencies that evolution instilled in us. Personally, I recommend the hardback version even though it's about ten dollars more; the hardback version has a book dust jacket that is STUNNING and gorgeously eye-catching, whereas the paperback is much duller and note really noteworthy. I also got the hardback for myself because I think I'm going to be keeping it for years to come.

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Textbook, Novel, and Self-Help Guide All in One

This was an exceptional book. Using it as a textbook to a Genetic Evolutionary Economics course to understand the differences between predicted and actual behavior with regards to economics allowed me to read this book under different circumstances than most. However, it read easier than any textbook I've been assigned to in my years at the University of Michigan, and the book (along with the class, which was taught by one of the authors) served as a self-help guide to improving the happiness factor in one's life, or at least examined the question as to what it is that makes people happy.

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even better in paper

Sexy stuff, even if it is science. If you've never read it, now's the time...right before the holidays, when you're going to be uncomfortably close to lots of fatty food. The Mean Genes Guys explain in simple (and sometimes sexy) language why you can't say no to the turkey with dressing, the pumpkin pie, or that hot thing sitting next to you at The Nutcracker. Give it to people as presents, and maybe they'll forgive you for every mean/selfish/snappish thing you did in the past--after all, your genes made you do it!

Fun, but unconvincing and shallow

Authors give an account of important findings of evolutionary psychology, as a way to improve our lives. But covering so many topics in just 250 pages must lead to trivializing science in truly barbarian style. If you are unconvinced of validity of evolutionary approach to understanding human nature: keep away, this book will only outrage you. If you are interested, or are an 'intelectually sophisticated' person, take Buss' 'Evolutionary psychology', 'Adapted mind' or 'Evolution of desire' for easier approach. Those who know already some ev-psych, will by simply bored, as they will find almost nothing new in 'mean genes', nothing that they couldn't think of themselves. Only truly open minded readers, who haven't got in touch with the field, and want to have some fun would really love that book.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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