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    The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy
    The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy
    The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy

    Written by William von Hippel

    Narrated by Michael David Axtell

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the compelling popular science tradition of Sapiens and Guns, Germs, and Steel, a groundbreaking and eye-opening exploration that applies evolutionary science to provide a new perspective on human psychology, revealing how major challenges from our past have shaped some of the most fundamental aspects of our being.

    The most fundamental aspects of our lives—from leadership and innovation to aggression and happiness—were permanently altered by the ""social leap"" our ancestors made from the rainforest to the savannah. Their struggle to survive on the open grasslands required a shift from individualism to a new form of collectivism, which forever altered the way our mind works. It changed the way we fight and our proclivity to make peace, it changed the way we lead and the way we follow, it made us innovative but not inventive, it created a new kind of social intelligence, and it led to new sources of life satisfaction.

    In The Social Leap, William von Hippel lays out this revolutionary hypothesis, tracing human development through three critical evolutionary inflection points to explain how events in our distant past shape our lives today. From the mundane, such as why we exaggerate, to the surprising, such as why we believe our own lies and why fame and fortune are as likely to bring misery as happiness, the implications are far reaching and extraordinary.

    Blending anthropology, biology, history, and psychology with evolutionary science, The Social Leap is a fresh and provocative look at our species that provides new clues about who we are, what makes us happy, and how to use this knowledge to improve our lives.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 13, 2018
    ISBN9780062866745
    Author

    William von Hippel

    William von Hippel grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian. He lives with his wife and two children in Brisbane, Australia.

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    Reviews for The Social Leap

    4.5/5

    73 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book provides a solid view on the evolutionary causes of our behavior, perception and community. It not only delivers facts and figures, but is also presented in an entertaining way. I would've wished to have an ebook format as well, but the audio version was extremely well narrated, so I don't feel I missed out much.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      A disappointing mixture of fascinating evolutionary psychology (the good) and unnecessary political jabs at half of America (the bad).
    • 5/5
      Awesome book that goes into detail about our ancestral beings. The author is super informative and I’d recommend buying this book as well.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written book, and offers numerous interesting theories on why humans social life is how it is. I definitely recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Nice and articulated book for those wanting to start with anthropology.
    • 5/5
      Attention grasping thought provoking insights with easily recognizable examples from everyday life. Each new portion of audio book gave bits and pieces, that helped me look at daily problems from different and I would even say "fun" perspective. Narrator is the same wonderful as story itself. Not sure, if this is something to do with all humans ears , or just mine, but listening to that voice was relaxing.
    • 4/5
      Logically set along man's evolution. Lots of insights which are not obvious in the day to day world. Most concepts explained well.
      Sometimes the author falters - for example when he calls the internet a social innovation. Internet is a technical innovation which expands, democratizes and energizes the social phenomena of networking. Networking has existed for aeons. Internet is only the modern tool which makes global and random networking possible.
      Author also takes liberties with cause and effect arguments- sometime using A-> B to argue that B-> A. He uses this when showing the link between happiness and immune systems. He starts with showing that immunity build up happens when we are not stressed and when we are not defending or attacking. He then flips the argument and claims that immune systems work well when we are happy.

      In fact the whole discussion on happiness feels misplaced. Why is happiness important to survival and evolution.

      Another challenging argument is on grandmothers and their importance for raising children. Did children not survive without grandmothers?

      But overall a well written book and worth reading!
    • 5/5
      Nice book! Very instructive! I really liked it and it taught me a lot.
    • 5/5
      My favorite sort of book exploring and explaining Homo Sapiens: no woo-woo; all about evidence, critical observation, experimentation; nuanced, cautiously speculative; well-written and well-documented. Loved it. A great companion book to Sapiens by Yuval Harari.