37.00 NZD
Category: Science
The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ conjures an image of the
most cutthroat individuals rising to the top. But Stefan Klein, author
of the international bestseller The Science of Happiness, makes the startling assertion that the key to achieving lasting personal and societal success lies in helping o
The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ conjures an image of the
most cutthroat individuals rising to the top. But Stefan Klein, author
of the international bestseller The Science of Happiness, makes the startling assertion that the key to achieving lasting personal and societal success lies in helping others.
Klein argues that altruism is in fact our defining characteristic:
natural selection favoured those early humans who cooperated in groups.
With their survival more assured, our altruistic ancestors were free to
devote brainpower to developing intelligence, language, and culture —
our very humanity. As Klein puts it, ‘We humans became first the
friendliest and then the most intelligent apes.’
To build his persuasive case for how altruistic behaviour made us
human — and why it pays to get along — Klein brings together an
extraordinary array of material: current research on genetics and the
brain, economics, social psychology, behavioural and anthropological
experiments, history, and modern culture. Ultimately, his groundbreaking
findings lead him to a vexing question: if we’re really hard-wired to
act for one another’s benefit, why aren’t we all getting along?
Klein believes we’ve learned to mistrust our generous instincts because success is so often attributed to selfish ambition. In Survival of the Nicest,
he invites us to rethink what it means to be the ‘fittest’ as he shows
how caring for others can protect us from loneliness and depression,
make us happier and healthier, reward us economically, and even extend
our lives.
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