The Social Animal

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER With unequaled insight and brio, New York Times columnist David Brooks has long explored and explained the way we live. Now Brooks turns to the building blocks of human flourishing in a multilayered, profoundly illuminating work grounded in everyday life. This is the story of how success happens, told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica. Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to old age, illustrating a fundamental new understanding of human nature along the way: The unconscious mind, it turns out, is not a dark, vestigial place, but a creative one, where most of the brain’s work gets done. This is the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made—the natural habitat of The Social Animal. Brooks reveals the deeply social aspect of our minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. He demolishes conventional definitions of success and looks toward a culture based on trust and humility. The Social Animal is a moving intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. It is an essential book for our time—one that will have broad social impact and will change the way we see ourselves and the world.

Exploring the key ideas in social psychology, this collection of classic and contemporary readings includes accounts of specific experimental findings as well as more general articles summarizing studies on such topics as attraction, prejudice, and aggression. The new edition adds 15 new readings while retaining a number of classics by leading psychological thinkers such as Stanley Milgram on obedience and Solomon Asch on conformity. Readings makes the perfect companion for the Aronson's highly praised book, The Social Animal as it follows the same major themes. The Reader can also be used with any introductory social psychology text or even in lieu of a text. Using both The Social Animal textbook and the reader is a unique and engaging combination for understanding social psychology and its research.

From the influential and hugely popular "New York Times" columnist and bestselling author of "Bobos in Paradise" comes a landmark exploration of how human beings and communities succeed.

A rat will go out of its way to help a stranger in need. Lions have adopted the calves of their prey. Ants farm fungus in cooperatives. Why do we continue to believe that life in the animal kingdom is ruled by competition? In The Social Lives of Animals, biologist Ashley Ward takes us on a wild tour across the globe as he searches for a more accurate picture of how animals build societies. Ward drops in on a termite mating ritual (while his guides snack on the subjects), visits freelance baboon goatherds, and swims with a mixed family of whales and dolphins. Along the way, Ward shows that the social impulses we’ve long thought separated humans from other animals might actually be our strongest connection to them. Insightful, engaging, and often hilarious, The Social Lives of Animals demonstrates that you can learn more about animals by studying how they work together than by how they compete.

An entertaining, research-based introduction to modern social psychology. A landmark text that maintains its relevance and unique approach edition after edition, The Social Animal offers you a brief, compelling introduction to modern social psychology. Through vivid narrative, lively presentations of important research, and intriguing examples, Elliot Aronson probes the patterns and motives of human behavior, covering such diverse topics as terrorism, conformity, obedience, politics, race relations, advertising, war, interpersonal attraction, and the power of religious cults. Now with a stronger focus on evolutionary and neuroscientific approaches throughout, this entertaining masterpiece will illuminate the study of human behaviors through real-life scenarios you’ll relate to.

Exploring the most important ideas in social psychology, this collection of classic and contemporary readings includes accounts of specific experimental findings as well as more general articles summarising studies on such topics as attraction and aggression. In the new edition, the most significant and proactive articles of earlier editions have been retained, including such classics as Stanley Milgram on obedience and Solomon Asch on conformity. Organised to illustrate the major themes of Elliot Aronson’s highly praised book, The Social Animal, this acclaimed collection of articles can readily be adapted for use with any introductory social psychology text or even in lieu of a text.

Newly revised and up-to-date, this edition of The Social Animal is a brief, compelling introduction to modern social psychology. Through vivid narrative, lively presentations of important research, and intriguing examples, Elliot Aronson probes the patterns and motives of human behavior, covering such diverse topics as terrorism, conformity, obedience, politics, race relations, advertising, war, interpersonal attraction, and the power of religious cults.

What kind of social animal are we? A provocative and stimulating answer