The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity
Published by Brilliance Audio
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Human beings can be so compassionate-and yet they can also be shockingly cruel. What if there was a hidden master control for human behavior? Switch it on and people are loving and generous. Switch it off and they revert to violence and greed. Pioneering neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak has discovered just such a master switch, a molecule in the human brain.
The Moral Molecule is a firsthand account of this discovery, revealing how evolution built the Golden Rule into our biology. From his laboratory in California to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, Zak takes you on an amazing and exciting journey to what it means to be human.
Zak's experiments-what science writer Matt Ridley called "the most revealing in the history of economics"-measure a brain chemical called oxytocin found in the bloodstream. His colleagues sometimes call him the vampire economist. His research team has taken blood from thousands of people as they made decisions with money in the lab, played football out on the field, jumped from an airplane, attended a wedding, and many other situations in which human interactions take place. Ascending from molecules to families to entire societies, Zak's findings reveal how oxytocin can produce a virtuous cycle of love and prosperity.
The Moral Molecule is a journey well beyond common theories about why we make the decisions we do. Zak explains what underlies the great mysteries of human behavior-why some husbands are more faithful than others; why women tend to be more generous than men; why we are sometimes rational and other times irrational. He explores the role of religion in moral behavior, how the moral molecule operates in the marketplace, and-most important, once we understand the moral molecule-how we can consciously use it to make our own lives better.
Related to The Moral Molecule
Related audiobooks
Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Half: The Unseen Forces That Influence Everything Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImpossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Tank: Forty Neuroscientists Explore the Biological Roots of Human Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Peace and Violence in Human Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of E Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curious? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A General Theory of Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One People One Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Biology For You
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the Mind Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Before 25): Change Your Developing Mind for Real-World Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Uncertain Sea: Fear is everywhere. Embrace it. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second Nature: A Gardener's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Moral Molecule
14 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I know that chemical adjustments, say in the form of anti-depression meds, are extremely helpful to innocent sufferers of terrible depression that, unasked for, invades them. I also believe that we make moral choices ungoverned by the measure of peptides each of us has in our chemical storehouse. Many highly moral people mentally master their impulses and take the high road independent of their chemistry.
Eleanor Cowan, Author of : A History of a Pedophile's Wife - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Disappointing. A drop or two of science forms a platform for a pile of rather obvious, even platitudinous, observations about human nature. A shaky crossing of Hume's line between Is and Ought. A few juicy scientific facts, e.g., that oxytocin as an active ingredient in our biochemistry has its own evolutionary predecessors that performed more basic functions. Too much reliance on a reductionist human-lab "Trust Game", (exchanges of trivial cash sums combined with blood-tests) lead the author to form all kinds of conclusions. Life is a lot more complex than this. Daniel Kahneman does this kind of thing much better - or even Steven Levitt in Freakonomics.
1 person found this helpful