Social
Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
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Social
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Narrated by:
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Mike Chamberlain
About this listen
In Social, renowned psychologist Matthew Lieberman explores groundbreaking research in social neuroscience, revealing that our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental, more basic, than our need for food or shelter. Because of this, our brain uses its spare time to learn about the social world-other people and our relation to them.
It is believed that we must commit 10,000 hours to master a skill. According to Lieberman, each of us has spent 10,000 hours learning to make sense of people and groups by the time we are ten. Social argues that our need to reach out to and connect with others is a primary driver behind our behavior. We believe that pain and pleasure alone guide our actions. Yet, new research using fMRI-including a great deal of original research conducted by Lieberman and his UCLA lab-shows that our brains react to social pain and pleasure in much the same way as they do to physical pain and pleasure.
Fortunately, the brain has evolved sophisticated mechanisms for securing our place in the social world. We have a unique ability to read other people's minds, to figure out their hopes, fears, and motivations, allowing us to effectively coordinate our lives with one another. And our most private sense of who we are is intimately linked to the important people and groups in our lives. This wiring often leads us to restrain our selfish impulses for the greater good.
These mechanisms lead to behavior that might seem irrational, but is really just the result of our deep social wiring and necessary for our success as a species. Based on the latest cutting edge research, the findings in Social have important real-world implications.
Our schools and businesses, for example, attempt to minimalize social distractions. But this is exactly the wrong thing to do to encourage engagement and learning, and literally shuts down the social brain, leaving powerful neuro-cognitive resources untapped.
The insights revealed in this pioneering audiobook suggest ways to improve learning in schools, make the workplace more productive, and improve our overall well-being.
©2013 Matthew D. Lieberman (P)2013 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Charley
- 19-04-23
Amazing book
Fascinating read. I feel like I learned a great deal. I would have preferred it read by the author though.
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- N. Drennan
- 14-07-16
An exceptional book
This book is brilliantly written and very thought provoking . I just hope people are listening to this message. Highly recommended.
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- Georgestam
- 29-07-15
Now I understand why we suffer!
This book has opened my mind on understanding why sometimes we feel empty and what is all the source of all the happiness. It has also a master lecture of how the new education should be.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Asten
- 07-04-17
Social skills and knowledge is the most important skill
This is a great book. It shows the importance of our social skills, interactions and relationships from a scientific study. Our society especially in the west grossly underestimates the importance of the social skills and relationships we have with each other, from romance, family and friends to business and the workplace. We have been taught that money and academics is more important and although those pillars are important we need the social pillar just as much, maybe even more. A must read! Brilliant book.
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- Duncan Dale
- 09-07-16
Compulsory reading
Listen to this and you will understand everything, period. Also should be top of the list for anyone suffering from social anxiety; or as I now know to refer to it: social pain and suffering.
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- Pyrex
- 30-11-24
Informative and easy to read
Informative, informal, and inciteful. The author is humble as scientists go and conveys the details of the literature and his research effectively with a neutral tone, albeit with colloquialisms.
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