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 ; [includes a new afterword]

Now available in paperback-a provocative new look at biology, evolution, and human behavior 'as disturbing [as it is] fascinating' ( Publishers Weekly ). Why are most neurosurgeons male and most kindergarten teachers female? Why aren't there more women on death row? Why do so many male politicians ruin their careers with sex scandals? Why and how do we really fall in love? This engaging book uses the latest research from the field of evolutionary psychology to shed light on why we do the things we do-from life plans to everyday decisions. With a healthy disregard for political correctness, Miller and Kanazawa reexamine the fact that our brains and bodies are hardwired to carry out an evolutionary mission? an inescapable human nature that actually stopped evolving about 10,000 years ago.

In this lively and provocative look at how evolution shapes our behavior and our lives, Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa reexamine some of the most popular and controversial topics of modern life and shed a whole new light on why we do the things we do.

Publishers Weekly

That mouthful of a title says it all. According to Kanazawa, a media-savvy researcher whose studies of "beautiful people" have been covered by the BBC and the New York Times, and the late Miller, a professor of social psychology, evolutionary psychology explains almost everything about human behavior. Proponents of what they call "the Standard Social Science Model" believe that the human mind is exempt from biological pressures, while evolutionary psychologists hold that people are an animal species driven by animal needs. The authors suggest that human evolution stopped when agriculture began changing the world much faster than the world could change us, and now 10,000-year-old impulses to find the right mate and produce healthy offspring control nearly every aspect of our existence, from choosing jobs to religious belief. This accessible book opens the youthful field of evolutionary psychology wide for examination, with results often as disturbing as they are fascinating. (Sept. 4)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

A provocative analysis of the diverse ways in which evolution shapes human behavior and human lives draws on the latest findings in the cutting-edge field of evolutionary psychology to offer revealing glimpses of human nature and to shed new light on why humans do the things that they do. 75,000 first printing. An analysis of the ways in which evolution shapes human behavior and human lives draws on the field of evolutionary psychology to offer revealing glimpses of human nature and to shed new light on why humans do the things that they do In their lively and provocative look at how evolution shapes behavior, Miller and Kanazawa reexamine some of the most popular and controversial topics of modern life, and shed a whole new light on why people do the things they do