Customer Reviews

Darwinian Happiness: Evolution as a Guide for Living and Understanding Human Behavior

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Bjorn Grinde not only explains the nature of being human, he goes beyond that and uses this knowledge to offer advice as to how to improve your quality of life. The resulting concept of Darwinian happiness makes a lot of sense. It offers a way of pursuing happiness that may benefit not only the individual, but also society.

Happiness can be found by tuning in to the potential we all have for positive feelings. It does not require spending a lot of money and it is better served by being kind to people rather than being mean. As to the latter, the author points out that gregariousness and compassion give more joy than aggression.

Sociability evolved relatively late in our lineage at a time when features in the brain were added by coupling them with brain rewards in the form of positive feelings. Our aggressive tendencies, on the other hand, are evolutionarily-speaking very old and are, therefore, more instinctive and, to a less extent, coupled with positive sensations.

The book is entertaining and easy to read. It can be highly recommended. I truly wish this book had been required reading in my college psychology and sociology classes.

Darwinian Happiness is a novel concept in the literature on well being. Contrary to most books that offer advice on how to live your life, it starts out with a scientific perspective. It explains why, in evolutionary terms, we have a capacity to feel good or feel bad. Based on this understanding of the human brain, we are advised on how to best nurture positive feelings.

All in all the book does a very good job at explaining what it means to be human, why we have evolved a capacity to enjoy life in general, and things like art and music in particular. One recurring recommendation is that we should try to adapt the way we live to the way we are designed to live. By heeding this advice, we are likely to obtain better health both mentally and physically.

Above the entrance to the ancient Oracle of Delphi was written "know thyself". This book on Darwinian Happiness allows you to follow that advice. It is the best book on the biology of human behavior that I have read. I urge you to try it.

I am a fan of Evolutionary Psychology and I love this book. It is very well written and explains human behavior very well.