

The Nature of the Beast
Author: David J. Anderson
Narrator: L.J. Ganser
Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 03/15/2022
Categories: Nonfiction, Social Science, Anthropology, Statistics
Synopsis
In fact, scientists haven’t been able to reach a consensus on whether animals even have emotions like humans do, let alone how to study them. Yet studies of animal emotion are critical for understanding human emotion and mental illness.
In The Nature of the Beast, pioneering neuroscientist David J. Anderson describes a new approach to solving this problem. He and his colleagues have figured out how to study the brain activity of animals as they navigate real-life scenarios, like
fleeing a predator or competing for a mate. His research has revolutionized what we know about animal fear and aggression. Here, he explains what studying emotions and related internal brain states in animals can teach us about human
behavior, offering new insights into why isolation makes us more aggressive, how sex and violence connect, and whether there’s a link between aggression and mental illness.
Full of fascinating stories, The Nature of the Beast reconceptualizes how the brain regulates emotions—and explains why we have them at all.