Broadway BooksProduct DescriptionWe 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 10000 hours to master a skill. According to Lieberman each of us has spent 10000 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 pe