The Village Effect by Susan Pinker, Paperback, 9781848878587 | Buy online at The Nile
Departments
 Free Returns*

The Village Effect

Why Face-to-face Contact Matters

Author: Susan Pinker  

Blending cutting-edge science with compelling personal narrative, bestselling author Susan Pinker examines the transformative power of human relationships and radically challenges our long-held assumptions about lifespan and happiness.

Read more
Product Unavailable

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

Blending cutting-edge science with compelling personal narrative, bestselling author Susan Pinker examines the transformative power of human relationships and radically challenges our long-held assumptions about lifespan and happiness.

Read more

Description

Sixty years ago the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote 'hell is other people'. Now, new evidence shows us that he was utterly wrong. Beginning from the first moments of life and at every age and stage, close contact with other people - and especially with women - affects how we think, whom we trust, and where we invest our money. Our social ties powerfully influence our sense of life satisfaction, our cognitive skills, and how resistant we are to infections and chronic disease. While information about diet, exercise, and new classes of drugs were the life-changing breakthroughs of the past decades, the new evidence is that social bonds - the people we know and care about - are just as critical to our survival.

The Village Effect tells the story of the ways face-to-face human contact changes our minds, literally. Drawing on the latest discoveries in social cognition, social networks and neuroscience, salted with profiles of real people and their relationships, Susan Pinker explains why we are driven to trust other people and form lifelong bonds, and why we ignore these connections at our peril.

Read more

Critic Reviews

Drawing on scores of psychological and sociological studies, Pinker suggests that living as our ancestors did, steeped in face-to-face contact and physical proximity, is the key to health, while loneliness is less an exalted existential state than a public health risk. Boston Globe The benefits of the digital age have been oversold. Or to put it another way: there is plenty of life left in face-to-face, human interaction. That is the message emerging from this entertaining book by Susan Pinker, a Canadian psychologist. Citing a wealth of research and reinforced with her own arguments, Pinker suggests we should make an effort - at work and in our private lives - to promote greater levels of personal intimacy. Financial Times Susan Pinker's delightful book shows why face-to-face interaction at home, school, and work makes us healthier, smarter, and more successful. Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit A terrific book . . . Pinker makes a hardheaded case for a softhearted virtue. Read this book. Then talk about it - in person! - with a friend. Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human An urgent polemic directed at the virtualisation of our lives... Pinker brings a weight of learning and good sense to the case and, no matter how mild-mannered, she swings a wrecking ball through the virtualists' house of cards -- Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times

Read more

About the Author

Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist, journalist, and author whose first book, The Sexual Paradox, won the American Psychological Association's most prestigious literary prize, the William James Book Award, and was published in seventeen countries. A national columnist, lecturer, and broadcaster whose work has garnered many writing awards, Pinker's ideas have been featured in The Times, the Guardian, The Economist, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Financial Times, Der Spiegel, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among other publica.tions. She lives in Montreal.

Read more

More on this Book

Sixty years ago the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote 'hell is other people'. Now, new evidence shows us that he was utterly wrong. Beginning from the first moments of life and at every age and stage, close contact with other people - and especially with women - affects how we think, whom we trust, and where we invest our money. Our social ties powerfully influence our sense of life satisfaction, our cognitive skills, and how resistant we are to infections and chronic disease. While information about diet, exercise, and new classes of drugs were the life-changing breakthroughs of the past decades, the new evidence is that social bonds - the people we know and care about - are just as critical to our survival... The Village Effect tells the story of the ways face-to-face human contact changes our minds, literally. Drawing on the latest discoveries in social cognition, social networks and neuroscience, salted with profiles of real people and their relationships, Susan Pinker explains why we are driven to trust other people and form lifelong bonds, and why we ignore these connections at our peril.

Read more

Product Details

Publisher
Atlantic Books
Published
5th March 2015
Edition
Main
Pages
432
ISBN
9781848878587

Returns

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.

Product Unavailable