Behave
Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky walks through the biology of human behavior in reverse-time chapters. He opens with the firing neurons one second before an action, then steps back to hormones in the minutes before, sensory cues in the hours before, adolescence and childhood, genetics, culture, and finally the deep evolutionary past. The book builds an integrated picture of why people act with kindness or cruelty, drawing on neuroscience, endocrinology, primatology, and behavioral genetics. Sapolsky uses war crimes, parenting, sports rivalries, and political tribalism as case studies for the layered biology that produces every human choice.
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Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky explains human behavior in reverse-time chapters, from the neurons firing one second before an action to the deep evolutionary past.
Behave was written by Robert Sapolsky and published in 2017. Sapolsky is a Stanford neuroendocrinologist whose lectures on YouTube and earlier books (including Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers) made him a leading public figure in behavioral biology.
Behave is around 800 pages and engages deeply with neuroscience, primatology, and evolutionary biology. It is one of the most ambitious popular science books of recent years. The footnotes alone are extensive. Most readers either commit fully or sample chapters.
Behave is 795 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Behave takes most readers 12 to 17 hours to finish.
Behave is a standalone novel by Robert M. Sapolsky, not part of a series.
Behave is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
