Description:

Why are Amazonian hunter-gatherers better at logic than Harvard students? Why did the Zambian president reject food donations during a famine? And why do billionaires work so hard—only to give their hard-earned money away? In this animated tour of the latest in behavioral science, psychologist Douglas T. Kenrick and marketing professor Vladas Griskevicius argue that while our decision making may seem superficially irrational, our misjudgments are the result of a psychological mismatch between ancestral drives for survival and our modern lifestyles. Ultimately, The Rational Animal offers an uplifting message—that while our brains may still house caveman impulses, we have evolved to be smarter than we think.

From Booklist

Sheer stupidity is what economic rationalists see when Elvis Presley buys 100 glitzy Cadillacs, when New York governor Eliot Spitzer pays as much as $80,000 for escort services, and when Steven Spielberg invests with Bernie Madoff. But Kenrick and Griskevicius see something more complex. In these apparently stupid decisions, they discern the results of an evolutionary history that impels men and women to ignore their own immediate self-interest in ways that ultimately foster the biological success of the species. That biological success, the authors argue, depends on a human identity that evolution has partitioned into seven separate subselves, each serving a different fundamental human need: self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care. When the environment triggers behaviors inscribed in any of these subselves, economic rationality may go out the window. Some readers may protest that the authors are offering biological justifications for foolishness. But the authors actually provide readers with helpful strategies for managing their evolutionary subselves prudently. A persuasive—and entertaining—look at the Darwinian dynamics of decision making. --Bryce Christensen

Review

"A persuasive--and entertaining--look at the Darwinian dynamics of decision making."--*Booklist*

"Why do we overspend, underinvest, and make seemingly poor decisions? The Rational Animal shows that the answer comes from a simple, but often overlooked place: Our animal ancestors. ... But rather than making us foolishly irrational, looking deeper inside ourselves reveals a surprisingly brilliant beast."--Jonah Berger, author of *Contagious: Why Things Catch On*

"...a fascinating, compelling, and fun case that people's decision-making embodies a deep evolutionary rationality rather than a superficial economic rationality. If you want to ...really understand what is going on in modern consumerist capitalism-- to dive deeper into our paleo-rationality than Dan Ariely or Daniel Kahneman have dared to go, you must read this book."--Geoffrey Miller, University of New Mexico, and author of The Mating Mind and *Spent*

"Vigorously investigated... Sharp, piquant science/behavioral-economics writing."--*Kirkus Reviews*

"Do you want to understand all kinds of human judgment errors that seemed inexplicable before? And do you want to be able to profit handsomely from that new and deep form of understanding? Then don't miss the profound insights of this groundbreaking book."--Robert B. Cialdini, author of *Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion*

"The Rational Animal is so persuasive that it could convince an ardent Wall Street economist to throw away his copy of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and replace it with Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species."--Noah J. Goldstein, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and coauthor of *Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive*