Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior

by Mark R. Leary

12 hrs and 11 mins

Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?

Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do. And many fields - including philosophy, psychology, and even theology - are focused on finding explanations. But it's only in recent decades that researchers can finally approach, understand, and solve the mysteries of emotion, thought, and behavior - solutions that help each of us to better know ourselves and the people around us. The result is not only a more solid understanding of what it means to be human, but a stronger foundation from which to live more effectively with others and to grasp their intricate behaviors and quirks.

Now you can gain those benefits through a series of 24 intriguing lectures from an award-winning teacher. Professor Leary takes you on a fascinating journey into the complex heart of who you are, using the latest theories, case studies, experiments, and stories to cast light on a wide variety of human behaviors, both ordinary and puzzling.

Throughout these lectures, you'll learn about the various interacting forces that influence your behavior. These include your genetic blueprint, your personal experiences, your upbringing, and the people and social groups that surround you.

Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Audiobook, Self Help, Leadership, Personal Development

13 pages, Audible Audio

First published July 8, 2013

Reviews

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This course has brought the reality of the human values, morality, behaviours and relationships back to evolutionary science for me, providing rational ,reasonable and clear explanations distancing from the while and whacky justifications which i have come across thus far.

My favourite lecture was on relationships based on interdependence theory, which for me explained pretty much the basics of all relationships.

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me back to all those psychology and sociology classes I took in college, lol. Lots of interesting info here. I especially enjoyed the parts about subliminal messages, dreaming and blushing. It's fun to look at this from the perspective of what our ancient ancestors found useful or advantageous.

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a four (not five) star, 'pretty darn good' course from one of my fave researchers and theorists Mark Leary.

Leary's work is primarily focused on phenomena related to self awareness and the social construction of the self.

So a lot of the course deals with these, or analogous issues, as well as other tantalizing articles of interest from the annals of research psychology (that's right, I said tantalizing and annals in the same sentence).

Some of Leary's work includes Sociometer Theory, which posits that what we commonly term 'self esteem' is essentially a barometer of social performance.

In other words, people suffer low self esteem when they are somehow underperforming socially, and it's adaptive because it motivates us to improve social function.

Furthermore, telling people (kids in particular) that they are awesome (even if they are not) in order to inflate their self esteem, without actually improving their social function is more or less a fail. Damaging even (see millennials).

Fluffing someone's self esteem is analogous to tinkering with a gas gauge in a car to make it display as full, when the gas tank is actually empty. Seems like a better idea to actually fill the tank right?

This doesn't exactly apply to abuse victims, who have been systematically degraded or otherwise made to feel like garbage, and who have artificially low self esteem, i.e. their sociometer is actually miscalibrated too low.

In cases such as these, people may need therapeutic cognitive restructuring in order to simply see themselves in a realistic and healthy way. That being said, improved social function is also good for them too. That's just sort of good for everyone.

A converse example would be grandiose* narcissists who have, like the opposite problem, with probable similar etiologies, but superficially opposite displays i.e. their their sociometer is miscalibrated too high.

* One of the more interesting issues covered in the course is narcissism. According to Leary, there are two varieties, (a) vulnerable narcissism i.e. the kind where people adopt a narcissistic defense against feelings of low self esteem. And (b) grandiose narcissism i.e. the kind where the person thinks that they are fly AF, but they are actually not in reality very fly at all.

In cases such as these, people may also need some therapeutic cognitive restructuring in order to see themselves in a healthier way. But good luck with that. Odds are pretty high everyone else has the problem if you catch my drift.

Anyway, I call this a pretty darn good course (as opposed to a Great Course) because it's a little less engaging than some of the other Great Courses e.g. Robert Sapolsky's epically awesome Biology And Human Behavior. Or Thad Polk's stupendously sick The Addictive Brain.

Don't let that stop you from getting this course though. It's eminently worth the time, energy and money. In other words, it's great enough, and if the competition wasn't so dang stiff it would definitely be a 'great' course.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life, genetics and behavior explain human nature. Our behavior is shaped by the physical and the social interactions and our thoughts and feelings make us human beings. This course covers a large part of the human experience and will save a listener from wading through countless vapid TED talks. In general, I detest TED talks due to their vapidity since they usually contain thoughts without content and do nothing but waste my time. As flattery is nothing but language without content, TED talks are almost always science without substance. This lecture covers the same kind of material, but the lecturer provides science, context, substance and has nothing to sell but learning for its own sake.

A broad swath of material is covered. For example, he will say except for obvious physical characteristics the really only big behavioral differences between men and women are men tend to be more aggressive and women tend to be more agreeable. Overall it is wrong headed to think that men are from Venus and women are from Mars. There were some points that I did disagree with from the lectures. I’ve always rejected the significance of the Ganzfeld telepathy results ever since I’ve first heard about them, but that very well could be a fault with me because of my narrow ‘no true Scotsman fallacy’ that I have. That is, I tend to reject all telepathy experiments prima facie because I have such a closed mind on the supernatural and supersensible and any experiment that demonstrates telepathy must not be a true scientific experiment (hence the Scotsman fallacy that I clearly have). I’m going to try to make an effort to be opened minded and consider the evidence more fairly in the future. (BTW, wiki tells me the Ganzfeld experiments haven’t been replicated. I’m still skeptical of them in spite of what the lecturer says about them).

Overall a highly informative and entertaining set of lectures and very well could save many wasted hours wading through self serving superficial TED talks

[Elahe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts of by giving an overview of how our genes interaction with the environment around us affect our personality. In the following chapters, it uncovers the mystery of many usual human characteristics such as feeling happiness, falling in love, and other small things such as why we blush! This book gives a new perspective on common human behaviour in others and in ourselves.

[Joseph L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watch a detailed review along with my favorite ideas and takeaways at:
https://youtu.be/1k6UGOekm58

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the Great Courses series—an examination of why people do what they do. The lecturer relies heavily on evolutionary biology for explanations and less on cultural influences. I don’t think biology can explain everything, but I am more of a physical sciences nerd and bored by biology and therefore biased. It’s pretty interesting overall. The lecture on prejudices was especially interesting: the more we divide people into groups or tribes, the more resentment we’ll get. It also explains why delayed gratification is hard and why people are reluctant to leave abusive and other bad situations.

1. Solving Psychological Mysteries
2. How Did Human Nature Evolve?
3. Where Do People’s Personalities Come From?
4. How Can Siblings Be So Different?
5. Why Do People Need Self-Esteem—or Do They?
6. Why Do We Have Emotions?
7. What Makes People Happy?
8. Why Are So Many People Stressed Out?
9. Why Do Hurt Feelings Hurt?
10. Why Do We Make Mountains Out of Molehills?
11. Why Is Self-Control So Hard?
12. Why Do We Forget?
13. Can Subliminal Messages Affect Human Behavior?
14. Why Do We Dream?
15. Why Are People So Full of Themselves?
16. Do People Have Psychic Abilities?
17. Why Don’t Adolescents Behave Like Adults?
18. How Much Do Men and Women Really Differ?
19. Why Do We Care What Others Think of Us?
20. Why Are Prejudice and Conflict So Common?
21. Why Do People Fall In—and Out of—Love?
22. What Makes Relationships Succeed or Fail?
23. Why Do People Blush?
24. A Few Mysteries We Can’t Explain Yet



Clean content

[Jones Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I discovered most interesting, the means by which the vast majority of our natural practices including some of our slightest appealing qualities, for example, Aggression and our Tendency to classify/judge others can be followed to the long, troublesome transformative battle that our primate and human predecessors needed to survive.

In the event that a greater amount of us could come to understand this, and after that be more aware of our intuitive practices, watchful to practice more mental oversight and control over them. We may be considerably more accommodating persons and, pretty much as imperative, be better arranged in achieving those objectives we have set for ourselves, whether they are professional or individual.

A percentage of the behavior characteristics, which can be better understood as far as what it took to survive and to ensure those whom we cherished for the greater part of our developmental history. The challenge for cutting edge guys, to figure out how to harness those authentic, yet no more as supportive, senses in ways that minimize our dangerous (to others and ourselves) responses to today's difficulties.

Things I favored from this book:

* The lectures on stress and on happiness.

* How to use our highly evolved brains intentionally and to build more sane and safe communities.

* Human Behaviour.

[Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting, well-delivered course. Professor Mark R. Leary has an easy teaching style, and has produced an informative, engaging course.
The course covers many interesting topics; many which trace back to a grounding in evolutionary biology.
My only criticism of this course is that Professor Leary often says things like: "The research shows that ____", and; "studies have shown that ____", without actually citing the research, or the studies. I have heard of most of what he referred to, so this wasn't a big deal for me.
Overall, I did enjoy this course. It is not overly technical, and is delivered in an easy-to-follow manner, suitable to the layperson.
I would recommend "Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior" to fans of The Great Courses, and anyone interesting in popping the hood and taking a look into the human condition.
4 stars.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many fun insights into the reasons that we do and think the things we do and think. Ultimately a book about evolutionary psychology that meanders from one odd human behavior (why do we dream? why are modern people so frequently stressed? why is prejudice so common? what do we care what others think about us?) to another in a loosely linked series of quasi-scientific anecdotes. Fun read but not as rigorous as other great courses books.

[Rebecka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and easy to listen to (works very well at 2x speed in Audible). This is the kind of audio book where I don't lose focus every 3 minutes, and that, seriously, never gets boring.

Now I just wish I could remember more of the things Leary talks about...

[Paul Botterill · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in psychology and why we behave the way we do then you will find this book fascinating. The book works through a series of well presented, readily digestible lectures about some of the most interesting area of human behaviour, such as why do we fall in love, why do we kiss, why do adolescents behave differently to adults or children etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Haris Tzerefos · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my experience, I 've found these lecture series a bit less interesting than the ones about human personality "why you are who you are". Still, they were enjoyable and decently informative.

[Iida Kaarto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mun Audible kokeilu loppu nii tää jäi vähä keske mut oli hyvä

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these lectures. I buy Great Courses on audible and they are almost always excellent.

[Saravana Sastha Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly insightful book on the various human behaviours, including those unexplained behaviours like laughing, kissing, art, conscience etc.

[Abdullah Al-Abri · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب رائع مع وجود اختبارات عملية مصحوبة بفحوصات في مجال سلوك الناس

[Prahalathan KK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were interesting and most parts were not

[Dayelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational, great storytelling. I also appreciated the structure of the book. Recommended.

[Chad Schultz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Partway through this audiobook, I thought "I'm not learning as much as I usually do when I listen to the Great Courses. It's not as interesting. It's not full of interesting new knowledge."

Then I reached the chapter on ESP. Listening to it, I wondered if the reason the author made the entire audiobook was to promote parapsychology. I raised my eyebrows when he claimed to have no particular views, to just be objectively stating the facts and that more research is needed.

The way he tells it, there are numerous extremely well-structured and reproduced studies that are held back by people who blindly follow the status quo and cannot accept change to scientific concepts, who criticize those studies for no good reason and ignore the overwhelming evidence for supernatural abilities in humans.

A few moments of research were enough to help me realize that instead, there were a few crackpots who published or attempted to publish studies claiming that ESP was real. Other scientists found the studies to be riddled with problems, and numerous attempts to reproduce the results by other scientists failed.

(But don't take my word for it--please, do your own research and draw your own conclusions.)

This seem negligent on the part of the author, practically deceitful. It certainly makes me lose faith in his credibility for the rest of the book. I nearly stopped listening at that point, and I am not one who tends to give up on books. But I stuck it out.

There wasn't anything else as disturbing as the ESP lecture, but on the other hand, there was nothing more interesting than in the first lectures.

There are many wonderful Great Courses, interesting and informative. This is not one of them.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting and compelling psychology books I've read. This lecture series presents a survey of interesting concepts related directly relevant to our lives. Recommended for anyone interested in why we do what we do.

[Tran Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Khoá này lý giải tại sao những thứ , cảm xúc mà thường được coi là tiêu cực lại tồn lại. Thoả mãn một phần những câu hỏi tại sao nó lại có? Tất cả đều có mục đích về tiến hoá. Con người bị điều kiện hoá quá nhiều.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of us want to understand human behavior, but it's often a puzzle. Why do siblings, born and raised in the same family, turn out so different? Why do identical twins have noticeably different personalities--and yet, also share some personality traits and preferences, even if they were adopted out and raised in different families? How different are men and women really? Why do we have behaviors that, in modern society, seem wildly maladaptive?

There's a lot of interesting material here, well-organized, and well-presented. There were a few occasions when I wanted to shout, "Have you met human beings?" A notable one: when he cited conflicts over football games as "unimportant." Seriously? Whether it's American football or the kind the rest of the world plays, surely everyone agrees that's life or death! Um, well, yes, that's a joke. But only a little one. Don't diss someone's chosen team!

But seriously, the subject matter is interesting, and the presentation is entertaining and absorbing.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed listening to this book. It was a good overview of some of the main questions surrounding human behaviour, as well as some of the main answers we have for those questions.
My favourite bit talks about sibling birth order, and how they found after rigorous testing that it has no predictive power for personality traits (despite popular opinion). The book also had some interesting insights on the influence of both genetics and experience on our personalities.

It is hard to quantify, but I do wonder how complete the perspectives are the the author gives. He mostly presents things in quite a straightforward way, with a latest-perspective, "correct" answer - for instance with regards to relationships - but I suspect it may be a little too straightforward a representation of the truth to be accurate.

A nice introduction but definitely something to be followed up by more in-depth books.

[Luca Nicoletti · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of lectures about the brain and human behaviours: why do we fall in love? Why do we laugh? Is DNA all there is? What is our consciousness? A lot of interesting topics are discussed in these lectures, and a lot of questions are asked, some of them are answered, and some of them are not.
The language used in the lectures is not one that everyone would easily understand, and the emphasis from the narrator is not the most entertaining one I’ve ever listened to. These two things together made it quite hard at some points to keep listening, to pay attention, to actually listen and understand what was being said.
That said, the book is overall interesting and I’ve surely learned a few things that will help me understand better my - and others’ - behaviours in my daily life.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great listen on Audible - it's a series of lectures, each between 20 and 30 minutes that tackles some of the big questions about why humans behave the way they do. I was interested in every single lecture but I particularly enjoyed the ones about why we dream, why we fall in and out of love and why siblings can be so different to each other. The author and narrator has a great delivery style - the pace is perfect, the tone holds your interest and he gives lots of practical examples to illustrate the points being made. I think even those who have no prior experience in understanding psychology would find this accessible and easy to understand. For those studying psychology it would be a great introduction to some big areas of research.

[Mahesh Karthik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting take on understanding the mysteries of human behavior by Prof. Mark R. Leary. There is some interesting take on the evolutionary reasoning behind certain human behaviors, asking interesting questions such as What makes us happy, Why do we forget, and many others. Each chapter is stand-alone in itself, which is perhaps a qualm for some readers but I found that to be alright. The reason I don't give it a perfect 5-star rating is that I believe the author added some chapters just to adhere to the length demands of The Great Courses. Chapters such as "Why do we blush" could have been skipped and added as a part of some other chapter as there has been more conjecture than a firm agreement within the scientific fraternity about it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected, but in fairness I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. OK this guy is a learned professor so I must bow to his superior intellect but at the same time totally disagree with his reasoning on so many levels.
He comes across as an apologist for evil behavior, with excuses going back to the beginning of time. I don't buy it, we all have a choice even if our ancestors were monsters.

[Roxanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically entertaining and informative, the lectures are really fun to listen to and was the perfect balance of fascinating research and real life case studies. Though it's not past of the objectives of this lecture series, I wish that he had time to dive more into "so what can do you about it, if this applies to you".

[Amr ElGarhy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book which gives you a general overview on some questions you might have been asking.
It makes me scratch my head and say "yes, why this is happening? aha, yes, I have been asking this the whole of my life"

I would recommended it, and I will definitely read most of it again very soon.