Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire---Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do Audiobook

" An interesting read. The answer to pretty much every question in evolutionary psychologists is pretty much that everything that people do is to mate, produce offspring, and have those offspring thrive. I think there is some truth to lots of the examples in the book, but a lot of time it felt like they were just trying to come up with explanations to fit their model, and sometimes they really didn't. "

" This book is utter dribble. In fact the more I think about it, the more it infuriates me because it disguises Western-centric racism as "science". Granted, I think I've questioned the validity of evolutionary psychology since reading Buss in FP, but this book simply served to confrim all my suspicions. It tackles such burning questions as: Why does everyone like blondes best? (it's because blond hair indicates youth, and men seek youth so that they can be sure of finding the most fertile women to make the most babies on.) The book makes a similar argument about blue eyes. You might wonder, as I did, about basis for making such sweeping generaliziations. ALL people EVERYWHERE in the world only want blond, blue-eyed women? What about, I don't know....ENTIRE PORTIONS OF THE WORLD in which people primarily have dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin? Their evidence is so weak, it's infuriating. I had been grading lots of student papers before reading this and, I kid you not, I kept finding myself making comments in the margins like "how can you prove this?" "where is your evidence for this?" "avoid such broad generalizations." Their writing, and especially their analytical skills are worse than my average freshman rhet student, and that's saying something. Only read this book if you like mythological-type stories about the origin of things. "

" Uses evolutionary psychology to explain why human tendancies evolved the way they did. The premise is that all actions are driven by evolved desires within the human psychy. The authors rightly point out that the purpose of the book is to overstate the effect of genes over environment given that the previous biase has been environment. The problem is that the athors have two assumptions. The first is that all genes evolved soley to provide a better opportunity to propogate and that this is the biological driver behind evolution. I would argue that is primarily true, but not so universally. That chance has a large say in evolution. The other problem is the authors mistake their theories by seeing if the outcome is as predicted, but start with the predictive outcome, therefore any theory works. If they would acknowledge this shortcoming it would add greatly to the book while not diminishing the work. "

" Light and accessible overview of evolutionary psychology. "

" Cool ideas, but this was one of those books where they make the point in the introduction and then spend the rest of the book remaking it over and over. Would have been better as a magazine article. "

" It mostly explained that everything we do, we do for sex. But as you read it, you kind of already know that. It was well written, a fun read, and very informative. I enjoyed it. "

" VERY interesting.... In a nutshell - According to the authors, sex determines everything for humans. Men want it and will do anything for it and women don't care, as long as their children are safe. If you want all the details, it is a really good book. "

" This is one of the better books on evolutionary psychology. It is very clear and well-written. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a good intro to this topic. "

" this is a must book for understanding where we are coming from and who we are. it helps to understand each other. highly recomended "

" Another read for my evolutionary psychology class "

" Every time I bring the thesis in this book up in class I am shot down and called a racist. It is a true must read for anyone who is seeking an alternative way of seeing the world. "

" Interesting read with evolutionary theories explaining various scenarios in life. Toward the end though, it seems like they're really stretching it to make it work and the cases they make don't seem to hold as much water. Interesting, but to be taken with a grain of salt. "

" Um, Amazing. I can't shake it. Life changer. "

" This is one of my favorite books. It changed the way I look at the world. Not to exaggerate, but it changed my life! "

" This is an interesting description of evolutionary psychology - how our biology influences what we do. It is a direct afront to much current sociological teachings, so it provided me lots of thoughts to mull over. "

" This is a fascinating, lay-person's introduction to evolutionary psychology. Screw Freud, Darwin's the one who REALLY holds the answers to why we do what we do. I read this in two days. "

" Somewhat simplistic pop science, but interesting nonetheless. "

" Sexism and racism gussied up as "science." Trevor McCandless dismantled this nicely. "

" Absolutely fascinating. This book should be required reading in every psychology class. Evolutionary psychology has some pretty convincing explanations for a lot of human behavior (and wouldn't you know it, just about everything is about sex). "

" A really good book to finding out answers to some trivial things. Very interesting. "

" don't look at the world the same way anymore... "

" I've learned a lot from this book and I'm totally amazed how they managed to write it that simple... "

" if i were to go back to school and get a ph.d., it would be in this. this book is a good primer of the field, but i want it to dig a little deeper, get into some of the nitty gritty. "

" It mostly explained that everything we do, we do for sex. But as you read it, you kind of already know that. It was well written, a fun read, and very informative. I enjoyed it. "

" Interesting read with evolutionary theories explaining various scenarios in life. Toward the end though, it seems like they're really stretching it to make it work and the cases they make don't seem to hold as much water. Interesting, but to be taken with a grain of salt. "

" I didn't agree with everything they said, but it's a good explanation of the differences between men and women, especially for someone as clueless as me. "

" Extremely sexist. Also promised to delve into people's political, religious, and consumerist behaviors but really just focused on the evolutionary reasons why men and women behave differently. "

" Misses the mark, which considering the premise, is too bad. "

" A really good book to finding out answers to some trivial things. Very interesting. "

" Not sure I buy their theories, but an interesting read anyway! "

" Tautologies are tautological. It wasn't the worst book ever but only because it is an interesting subject matter. It kept teetering on the edge of sexist and racist but I decided to hear him out. Yeah, turns out that I'm a shrew who keeps my husband from spreading his seed far and wide. "