The Moral Molecule
The Source of Love and Prosperity
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Narrated by:
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Paul J. Zak
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By:
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Paul J. Zak
About this listen
Human beings can be so compassionate - and yet they can also be shockingly cruel. What if there was a hidden master control for human behavior? Switch it on and people are loving and generous. Switch it off and they revert to violence and greed. Pioneering neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak has discovered just such a master switch, a molecule in the human brain. The Moral Molecule is a firsthand account of this discovery, revealing how evolution built the Golden Rule into our biology.
From his laboratory in California to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, Zak takes you on an amazing and exciting journey to what it means to be human. Zak’s experiments - what science writer Matt Ridley called “the most revealing in the history of economics” - measure a brain chemical called oxytocin found in the bloodstream. His colleagues sometimes call him the vampire economist. His research team has taken blood from thousands of people as they made decisions with money in the lab, played football out on the field, jumped from an airplane, attended a wedding, and many other situations in which human interactions take place. Ascending from molecules to families to entire societies, Zak’s findings reveal how oxytocin can produce a virtuous cycle of love and prosperity.
The Moral Molecule is a journey well beyond common theories about why we make the decisions we do. Zak explains what underlies the great mysteries of human behavior - why some husbands are more faithful than others; why women tend to be more generous than men; why we are sometimes rational and other times irrational. He explores the role of religion in moral behavior, how the moral molecule operates in the marketplace, and - most important, once we understand the moral molecule - how we can consciously use it to make our own lives better.
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- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
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In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and more.
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Did you know conservatives have more orgasms?
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The Mind of the Market
- Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: Michael Shermer
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
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The Mind of the Market will change the way we think about the economics of everyday life. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Michael Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy.
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Good ideas overshadowed by obnoxious polemics
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You Are Now Less Dumb
- How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself
- By: David McRaney
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality - except we’re not. But that's okay, because our delusions keep us sane. Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of 15 more ways we fool ourselves every day. This smart and highly entertaining audiobook will be wowing listeners for years to come.
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Not a lot of guidance
- By A. Yoshida on 02-08-14
By: David McRaney
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The Age of Empathy
- Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
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Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behavior is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and "survival of the fittest", but in fact, humans are equally hard-wired for empathy. Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behavior, and neuroscience, Frans de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals.
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A Lot Of Things In Common With Our Animal Friends!
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The Self Illusion
- Why There Is No "You" Inside Your Head
- By: Bruce Hood
- Narrated by: Bruce Hood
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The Self Illusion provides a fascinating examination of how the latest science shows that our individual concept of a self is in fact an illusion. Most of us believe that we possess a self - an internal individual who resides inside our bodies, making decisions, authoring actions and possessing free will. The feeling that a single, unified, enduring self inhabits the body is compelling and inescapable. But that sovereignty of the self is increasingly under threat from science as our understanding of the brain advances.
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Disappointing
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The Mind Club
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Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club". It's easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of minds do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds - while incredibly important - are a matter of perception.
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Who is the self in me? Am I part of something bigger?
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Our Inner Ape
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We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? What if our behavior actually makes us apes? What kind of apes are we?
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I loved this book
- By Ruth on 06-22-07
By: Frans de Waal
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Men Chase, Women Choose
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- By: Dawn Maslar
- Narrated by: Suzanne Elise Freeman
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Men Chase, Women Choose is the first book to offer cutting-edge research that explains how the brain works when two people first meet, start to date, fall in love, and then move into real long-term love. Maslar's unique approach brings together the latest and most relevant neurological, physiological, and biochemical research on the science of love while incorporating stories and examples of composite characters based on participants of her popular classes and seminars.
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Disappointed
- By Kittenheels on 11-18-18
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Cool
- How the Brain's Hidden Quest for Cool Drives Our Economy and Shapes Our World
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In Cool, the neuroscientist and philosopher Steven Quartz and the political scientist Anette Asp bring together the latest findings in brain science, economics, and evolutionary biology to form a provocative theory of consumerism, revealing how the brain's "social calculator" and an instinct to rebel are the crucial missing links in understanding the motivations behind our spending habits.
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Some Useful Ideas
- By Carson on 07-20-17
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The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking
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In this witty and perceptive debut, a former editor at Psychology Today shows us how magical thinking makes life worth living. Psychologists have documented a litany of cognitive biases and explained their positive functions. Now, Matthew Hutson shows us that even the most hardcore skeptic indulges in magical thinking all the time - and it's crucial to our survival. Drawing on evolution, cognitive science, and neuroscience, Hutson shows us that magical thinking has been so useful to us that it's hardwired into our brains.
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Highly enjoyable
- By David R Pinsof on 05-01-12
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The Science of Happily Ever After
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- By: Ty Tashiro
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In this playful and informative exploration of the science behind how to choose a great mate, acclaimed relationship psychologist Dr. Ty Tashiro explores how to find enduring love. Dr. Tashiro translates reams of scientific studies and research data into the first audiobook to revolutionize the way we search for love. His research pinpoints why our decision-making abilities seem to fail when it comes to choosing mates and how we can make smarter choices.
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Simplistic advice...
- By R. Steiner on 02-14-17
By: Ty Tashiro
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What listeners say about The Moral Molecule
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ST
- 03-06-13
Absolutely Facinating
The title about sums it up. It will change the way you think about love, sex and the way other people treat you.
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- Brian
- 06-12-13
loved it.
The single most fascinating book I've read in years. Science, psychology, religion, philosophy, morality. This book has it all.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Lindsay S. Nixon
- 05-23-17
challenged several lifelong beliefs I had
Where does The Moral Molecule rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
middle of the top
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
This book has been so fascinating, covering far more than I expected and it challenged several lifelong beliefs I had. For example, I believed we would have no morality without religion--not that you have to be religious to be moral, but that morality was conceptualized by religion. That is simply not the case. Our DNA is programed for us to act in ways we socially define as "moral" because that is required for species survival. The beginning part about Oxycetocin was also very interesting.
Any additional comments?
Zak has a 24-minute Ted talk (free on Youtube) that covers most of what is in this book and you can use it as a gauge if you want to dive deeper.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-14-22
too nice?
the most touching non-fiction book I've read, but unfortunately the data on unconditional non-reciprocators and people with psychopathologies is pretty meager, it appears that in interviews the author elaborates on the subject a bit more. also the subject of the "dark side" of oxytocin, which lies at the heart of tribalism wasn't punctuated as well as again in some of the podcasts, but I still don't regret listening to this
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1 person found this helpful
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- Lisa
- 02-03-13
Fun science read--but needed professional reader
An enjoyable science read. Just enough science to be intellectual, just enough anecdotal human interest to be fun. The basics are that oxytocin, the cuddle hormone, makes for pro-social behavior. The author examines what behavior releases oxytocin and how it effects behavior after it is released. In addition, he comments on how it interacts with testosterone, a rather anti-social hormone, and cortisol, the stress hormone. The author closes with how we can create a more oxytocin-filled, trusting, and happier world one oxytocin-inducing act after another. If you like a good pop-science read, you'll enjoy The Moral Molecule by Paul J. Zak. However, the author read the book himself and he is no professional reader. It's rather like if your not-so-into-reading-aloud spouse read the book to you. Rhythms are off, emphasis is little. It's just not pro-level, even for an author. For the sake of the enjoyable information, you can get through it, but they really should have hired a profession reader to showcase the information to best effect.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Keith
- 05-05-19
I learned a lot about oxytocin and the best way to live
The science informed insights and factual revelations about oxytocin and it’s role within the human and in human communities caused me to deepen my commitment to connection producing behaviors.
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- Douglas
- 11-23-13
A Codicil Is Necessary...
Even though I am giving this book four stars, there has to be a qualification. There has, in fact, been a lot of research done lately about the "hard-wired" facet of morality and moral behavior and its evolution in the human brain: everything from the frontal orbital cortex to mirroring cells to the insular cortex--to oxytocin. Oxytocin is a neurohypophysial hormone that is always present in our brains but which is released in larger doses during birth and breastfeeding in women and after orgasm in both sexes. Physical contact, positive group dynamics, a warm personal interaction--all contribute to the release of oxytocin--and oxytocin (often oversimplified--as Zak is wont--as "the cuddle hormone) makes us want more of these interactions. Thus the thinking goes, and mostly rightly, that oxytocin is part of the system that helps us to get along and behave in a more or less civil way to one another. Now the qualification: while all of what Zak proclaims is true, he does leave out some important aspects of oxytocin, that is to say, its darker side: like, for instance, that it can also be traced to things like individual and group favoritism and prejudice (feelings of warmth toward the people closest to you and who look and act like you can make others seem more distant and strange, if even on the subconscious level); thus, one could implicate it in some of the less wonderful events in human history. Zak likes to go around squirting oxytocin up people's noses,noting the warm and fuzzies they get from it and then singing its praises on lecture tours--and yes, its functions are interesting and study of what is does is important, but in the interest of science, do a bit more reading beyond this book to get the full picture on this complex, but not magic or mystical (and not by itself "moral") hormone.
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6 people found this helpful
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- EG Evans
- 11-06-22
Interesting, well researched
Paul Zak makes a strong case for the importance of oxytocin in every facet of human life. Well worth the read for anyone who work is to communicate.
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- WJO
- 04-21-24
Zak explains the use of a lot of research. Not really entertaining
I was recommended this working on a Masters degree in a science related field.
Mostly about oxytocin and what it does to the brain. Alot of research on mice and other animals. The author had the oleaito experiment on himself in the safety of a hospital, since they are married to a neurologist. I was a bit exhausted and not engaged with the social science and psychology of the book. Seemed like well documented reports over years. This can just be journal articles or a blog, because I don't see much replay value.
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