100 Best Evolutionary Psychology Books of All Time

Richard BransonOne example of a book that has helped me to #ReadToLead this year is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. While the book came out a few years ago now, I got around to it this year, and am very glad I did. I’ve always been fascinated in what makes humans human, and how people are constantly evolving, changing and growing. The genius of Sapiens is that it takes some daunting,... (Source)

Reid HoffmanA grand theory of humanity. (Source)

Barack Obamaeval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-leader-2','ezslot_7',164,'0','1'])); Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. (Source)

Charles T. MungerRobert Cialdini has had a greater impact on my thinking on this topic than any other scientist. (Source)

Dan ArielyIt covers a range of ways in which we end up doing things, and how we don’t understand why we’re doing them. (Source)

Max Levchin[Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?"] (Source)

Ryan HolidayThis is probably the definitive beginner text on evolutionary psychology and one of the easiest to get into. It’s a little depressing at first, realizing how ruthless many of our so called “good” feelings are. But then you realize that truth is better than ignorance, and you emerge seeing the world as it truly is for the first time. (Source)

Charles T. Mungerrecommends this book in the second edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. (Source)

Matt RidleyTurned evolutionary biology on its head and was written like a great detective story. (Source)

Phil LibinHad a profound influence on me pretty early on. (Source)

Barack ObamaA few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Marc AndreessenCaptivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? (Source)

Sam HarrisI highly recommend. It really is the most accessible discussion of brain science you will find. (Source)

Vinod KhoslaAmong the best insights into our brain and behavior. A top of the charts for me for this year, along with Scale. (Source)

Bryan Johnson[Bryan Johnson recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Mark ZuckerbergMy second book of the year is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend. Recent events might make it seem like violence and terrorism are more common than ever, so it's worth understanding that all violence -- even terrorism -- is actually decreasing over time.... (Source)

Eric SchmidtWhen you finish [this book], which takes a long time, you conclude that the world is in a much, much better place than it has been in the past. (Source)

Bill GatesYong succeeds in his intention to give us a 'grander view of life' and does so without falling prey to grand, unifying explanations that are far too simplistic. He presents our inner ecosystems in all their wondrous messiness and complexity. And he offers realistic optimism that our growing knowledge of the human microbiome will lead to great new opportunities for enhancing our health. (Source)

David BrooksAn argument against the old view that there is no such thing as human nature, that we’re all culturally determined. He brings together a ton of evidence that that’s wrong. (Source)

David BrooksHe argues that most of our moral decisions are that kind of an instant reaction. It’s like aesthetics: when we see a scene we know instantly if it’s beautiful or not. (Source)

Mike BenkovichHonourable Mentions: Four Hour Work Week, The Happiness Hypothesis, Meditations, Catch 22, A Guide To The Good Life. (Source)

Chelsea FrankI read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Jeff Bezos[From the book "The Everything Store: and the Age of Amazon"] “The scholar argues that people are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative,” Stone writes. (Source)

James AltucherAnd throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses... (Source)

Simon Sinekeval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_5',164,'0','1'])); Leaders needn’t be the loudest. Leadership is not about theater. It’s not about dominance. It is about putting the lives of others before any other priority. In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead.... (Source)

Jason FriedA good book I’d recommend is “Quiet” by Susan Cain. (Source)

James AltucherProbably half the world is introverts. Maybe more. It’s not an easy life to live. I sometimes have that feeling in a room full of people, “uh-oh. I just shut down. I can’t talk anymore and there’s a lock on my mouth and this crowd threw away the key.” Do you ever get that feeling? Please? I hope you do. Let’s try to lock eyes at the party. “Quiet” shows the reader how to unlock the secret powers... (Source)

Noah KaganA few months ago, I was drinking a Noah’s Mill whiskey (cute) with my good buddy Brian Balfour and talking about life... During the conversation, we got on the topic of books that changed our lives. I want to share them with you. I judge a book's success if a year later I'm still using at least 1 thing from the book. (Source)

Esther Perel[Esther Perel recommended this book as an answer to "What are some [resources] for couples who want to explore having a more “monogamish” relationship?"] (Source)

Max Levchin[Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?"] (Source)

Nick HarkawayPredictably Irrational is an examination of the way in which we make decisions irrationally, and how that irrationality can be predicted. (Source)

Jonah LehrerDan Ariely is a very creative guy and was able to take this basic idea, that humans are irrational, and mine it in a million different directions. (Source)

A.J. JacobsAll about trying to figure out the gap between the red and blue states – Republican and Democrat – and it’s really interesting. (Source)

Akin Oyebode@eggheader @OnemuVictor1 @JonHaidt Abeg order two. I read Righteous Mind which he also wrote, and that was a very fascinating book. (Source)

Andrew M. MwendaThe best work on this is a book by Jonathan Haidt “The Righteous Mind: Why good People are Divided by Religion and Politics.” He argues that human beings have deeply entrenched moral intuitions which guide their assessment of reality. Facts matter very little if at all. (Source)

Bill GatesFascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. (Source)

Daniel EkA brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. (Source)

Yuval Noah HarariA book of big questions, and big answers. The book turned me from a historian of medieval warfare into a student of humankind. (Source)

Nigel WarburtonWright has a degree of evangelism about him, but he’s not saying this is the only way to achieve a better life. He says it’s a way of eliminating suffering from many people’s lives, and it worked for him. (Source)

Naval RavikantGetting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] The Red Queen. (Source)

Satoshi KanazawaMen sought youth and physical attractiveness in their mates, whereas women sought resources and status in theirs. (Source)

Simon Baron-CohenIt’s a really wonderful example of what you can do: take research into something as fundamental to human nature as language and make it accessible to a wide audience. (Source)

Lane GreeneThere are two achievements in this book. One is to smuggle Linguistics 101 into a popular book, which is just fantastic. The other is his own argument about the nature of language, and the title says it all. (Source)

Dan EngleSuch a good book about just deconstructing the whole idea of success in relationships. (Source)

Dan Kaminsky@DanielMiessler @balajis How The Mind Works being the formative book of my intellectual career makes this particularly interesting. I don’t always agree with Pinker but that’s not a requirement. (Source)

Neil deGrasse TysonWhich books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] On the Origin of Species (Darwin) [to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Mark KurlanskyIt is one of the most important books written, and I always urge people to read it. (Source)

Darren Aronofsky[Darren Aronofsky recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Susan JacobyRichard Dawkins is very funny. One of the reasons for reading The God Delusion is that it will disabuse you of the idea – which is a common stereotype of atheists – that they are utterly humourless. You hear this over and over again. I’m often invited to college campuses to give lectures, and often they’re religious schools – not fundamentalist schools, but colleges of a historically religious... (Source)

Vote Dem For The Planet@KimBledsoe14 @Goodbye_Jesus @Ian313f There were a lot of rebels and drifters in those days against the repressive regime. They had followers. Have you read “The God Delusion”? Great book. (Source)

Antonio EramThis book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. (Source)

Carol GilliganHrdy is an evolutionary anthropologist and her research challenges the widely held view that the nuclear family is the traditional or original human family. (Source)

Paul SeabrightHrdy has done more than any other individual to bring a sophisticated understanding of biology to the heart of a feminist perspective that we can live with in the 21st century. (Source)

Alison GopnikShe makes the very interesting argument that our particular evolutionary niche is such that we can’t just depend on mothers to provide care. (Source)

Suzana Herculano-HouzelDan Lieberman puts the brain into the context of the body as a whole. (Source)

James RandiThey talk about the blind watchmaker not being able to make a watch, but if you’re given an almost infinite number of combinations and permutations of materials and situations, the world will come about. Or it may not. In our case, it came about. You’re here, I’m here, and I’m very happy about that. (Source)

Jerry CoyneIf I had to pick just one self-contained book that lays out Dawkins’s philosophy and methodology, and shows his literary skills, I would have to pick this one. (Source)

Tom ClarkeDawkins brought Darwin up to date, explaining evolution in a way that incorporates our understanding of genetics and heredity. (Source)

Elon MuskIn terms of sci-fi books, I think Isaac Asimov is really great. I like the Foundation series, probably one of the all-time best. (Source)

Adam GazzaleyLife-changing for me as a kid, and have still read it multiple times throughout my life. (Source)

Amy WebbAsimov was a masterful fringe thinker, and this first book in the Foundation series shows just how attuned he was to possible and plausible future scenarios. Although it’s 50 years old, Foundation is especially provocative reading given our current state of world affairs — in order to save humankind and the vast knowledge we have accumulated, the main character gathers the smartest thinkers and... (Source)

Naval RavikantGetting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] Origins of Virtue. (Source)

Paul SeabrightYes, exactly. In one sense Matt Ridley was restating the message which was already there in The Descent of Man but which had rather been forgotten. What this book did was popularise the idea that cooperation can indeed be favoured by natural selection. (Source)

Austin KleonWhile re-reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s wonderful book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, I came across this passage on working crossword puzzles. I think he could just as well be talking about making blackout poems: "There is much to be said in favor of this popular pastime, which in its best form resembles the ancient riddle contests. It is inexpensive and portable, its challenges... (Source)

Tom ChatfieldThe notion of flow is the idea that there is a state that is characterised by complete immersion in an activity, by a constant response to stimuli, and a perfect match between your ability and the challenge in front of you. (Source)

Suzana Herculano-HouzelWe’ve come well past the point where a single person could hold all the cultural knowledge of the species. (Source)

Angela SainiThis is a book that demonstrates the misogynistic lens through which some male biologists have viewed the past. Morris routinely and repeatedly peddles the view that women have evolved to be monogamous, stay-at-home caregivers while men have pushed up human intelligence through their actions as hunters and providers. (Source)

Stephane GrandWhen a look back at my career path, it is the one of an entrepreneur. I have built various businesses, from accounting and financial advisory firms to tech and security businesses. I have also spent most of my adult life in China, a country that is quite hostile to foreigners and very unfair. I have accepted to suffer the hardships of building my business without any investment from anybody, and... (Source)

Eric SchmidtTribalism is all around us, but it does not have to be. After all, we are all human. In lively and engaging prose, Christakis shows what is possible, and what we must do. (Source)

Bill GatesAre our similarities powerful enough to overcome our differences? “Blueprint” is an optimistic (and terrific) book that explores why humans have evolved to work together and cooperate. https://t.co/mQz07WvFgm (Source)

Steven PinkerNicholas Christakis is a pioneer in bridging the conceptual chasm between the choices of individual people and the shaping of an entire society. In this timely and fascinating book, he shows how the better angels of our nature, rooted in our evolutionary past, can bring forth an enlightened and compassionate civilization. (Source)

Mark KurlanskyI wouldn’t argue with that description. When I was selecting this book it was a bit of a struggle, because I am a big Ed Wilson fan. I have met him and had a fascinating two-hour conversation with him. I have read about 10 books of his, so I had to struggle to choose because there were a number of great candidates. (Source)

Julian BagginiIf people want to read a New Atheist book, they should read this one. (Source)

Jerry CoyneHe calls it Breaking the Spell for a reason. He thinks there is this sanctity about religion which prevents people from asking, “Where did it come from in the first place?” It’s a human construct, after all, it wasn’t given to humanity by God. It couldn’t have been, because we have thousands of different religions. So even religious people recognize the human contribution to religion. At the... (Source)

Carl ZimmerI chose this because I think it expresses a really important idea. Richard Dawkins wrote this book not long after The Selfish Gene came out. That was his landmark book, in which he argued for a gene-centric view of evolution.  Genes build bodies. They build traits, which are known as phenotypes, in order to be replicated in the next generation. (Source)

Peter AtkinsShows a highly imaginative approach to understanding the nature of the biosphere. A very clever book. (Source)

Susan BlackmoreAn enjoyable read that will make you think. (Source)

Suzana Herculano-HouzelEssentially what Richard proposes is that the turning point in human evolutionary history was the invention of cooking. (Source)

Steven RaichlenPeople have deep emotions about grilling. The act of lighting a fire and creating a barbecue seems to bring a sense of comfort, satisfaction and community that you just don’t get with other cooking methods. Why? There is the pleasure of sitting around a fire, the incredible aromas and flavours you get with cooking over fire and then there’s the long human history of open-fire cooking. (Source)

Mark ZuckerbergThis book aims to tell a history of humanity from the perspective of genetics rather than sociology. This should complement the other broad histories I've read this year, as well as follow "Energy" well in focusing on science. I've wanted to read Matt Ridley's books for a while. His recent book "The Rational Optimist" about how progress and the economy evolve is also near the top of my... (Source)

Naval RavikantGetting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up Genome [...]. (Source)

Dominic Steil[One of the books that had the biggest impact on .] (Source)

Melissa MohrThis is about language more generally, but it has a great chapter on swearing. It’s a really good shorter summary, where he hits all the highlights about swearing and physiology in terms of how it works in the brain and the effects it has on your body. (Source)

Bret Weinstein@primalpoly @MarketAphorist @davidbusspsych And actually, if you read carefully the description tells you what you need to know. The field has amazing promise. It is on the verge of answering the most important questions. If you want to be current, you need this book. Should I check back in another generation, then? (Source)

Nassim Nicholas Taleb4 hours dinner conversation with @rorysutherland and Rohan @Silva in a Pakistani restaurant in London (2 bottles of wine, but no Negroni). You must buy two copies of Rory's book, in case one is stolen, lost, damaged (by the rain), or self-destructs. https://t.co/Xa5WFOGCNt (Source)

Geoffrey MillerAgree. This is a great book by @rorysutherland that will shake up how you think about lots of things. Try it, and you'll realize you're nowhere near as epistemically humble as you should be. https://t.co/8U1iAxji8Z (Source)

Preston Pysh@rorysutherland I would love to interview you on our podcast. Your book was incredible! (Source)

Carol DweckI was raised in the heyday of the IQ craze. My sixth grade teacher seated us around the room in IQ order and assigned all privileges on the basis of IQ. This book made me realise the effect it had on us and I saw that my work could play a role in bringing that era to a close. (Source)

Jerry CoyneHe had this Marxist viewpoint towards biology which in the end made him almost reject natural selection. (Source)

Susan GelmanThis is a classic book. It was published in 1981 and got a lot of attention when it came out. Gould just does this beautiful job of laying out the ‘biology as destiny’ idea – and then ripping it to shreds. (Source)

Vlatko VedralWe can explain living systems scientifically very well, but what about human beings? What about the mind? I don’t think we have any ideas in science really how to attack this problem. Because, even defining what the mind or consciousness is, this is still completely open, and in science we have to have a good definition. So now we are not talking about biology any more; we are really talking... (Source)

Angela SainiThis is one of the most important science books ever written. Sarah Hrdy overturns centuries of orthodoxy and assumptions about female behaviour and sexuality, with clear, logical, crystal-sharp reasoning, using not just good science but also historical evidence. (Source)

Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)

Kenneth MillerSean Carroll is a developmental biologist. He uses molecular techniques to study the ways in which the embryo develops and uses specialised tissues and structures. His book actually comes, he claims, from a question one of his children asked him. The question was: Is the zebra a white animal with black stripes, or a black animal with white stripes? Which when you think about it is a very... (Source)

David BrooksThis makes the prediction that a lot of the disciplines we have separated human behaviour into are obsolete, and that we are on the verge of unifying knowledge in an inter-disciplinary way. (Source)

Suze KunduSpotted this book on sale at @calacademy this evening - packed with a whole host of LGBT+ role models, it really is worth grabbing a copy to find out about some really awesome unsung heroes. (@carlzimmer is just hiding on the shelf below - also an excellent read!) https://t.co/EA7g8GoSvF (Source)

Harriet RitvoAddresses the set of human characteristics that are most likely to be fixed on by people who wish to emphasise the distinction between people and other animals. (Source)

Kenneth MillerThis book is an unusual recommendation for me because it was written on commission. About a decade ago, the [PBS] scientific documentary television series Nova put together an eight-hour series called Evolution.They had some help from the BBC with this. They felt that they needed a companion book for the series. So they knocked on the door of the person who is, in my opinion, the best science... (Source)

Yuval Noah HarariIt completely changed my view of chimpanzees and Homo sapiens alike. Probably the most funny science book I have ever read. A must-read for politicians of all species! (Source)

Susan BlackmorePeople go in two directions: they either love the way he writes, or they hate it. I love it, with all his mad examples and neologisms. (Source)

Keith FrankishThe book is packed with thought experiments, all designed to undermine the intuitive but misleading picture of the Cartesian Theatre. (Source)

Bruce SchneierDavid M Buss is a psychologist, and he writes well about the natural murderousness of our species. There’s a lot of data to support natural human murderousness, and not just murder rates in modern societies. Anthropological evidence indicates that between 15% and 25% of prehistoric males died in warfare. (Source)

Simon Baron-CohenI think this book is unusual for lots of reasons. I found it really gripping. First of all, it is written by someone with autism. For me, as a scientist who has been looking at autism from the outside, I felt there is so much we can learn from her because she has actually got the condition, and is able to tell us what the world looks like from her point of view. (Source)

Merve EmreIt’s about trying to systematically understand the ways in which people behave in social situations—how they collaborate with others to make and maintain their sense of self by playing certain roles. (Source)

Rose McDermottWhy is it that physical aggression occurs in higher degrees among males? (Source)

Seth GodinIf you're trying to get people to buy more stuff, this book will show you how. If you're trying to understand why you buy so much stuff, this book will show you how as well. Good stuff on every page. (Source)

Yuval Noah HarariA captivating and big-hearted book, full of compassion and brimming with insights about the lives of animals, including human ones. (Source)