American · b. 1957
Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroscientist and primatologist known for making behavioral biology vivid and accessible, author of Behave and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford who spent years studying baboons in Kenya, and he is celebrated for explaining the biology of behavior with wit, erudition, and humanity.
His book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers is a classic popular account of stress and its effects on the body, while his ambitious Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst examines the many factors that shape human conduct. His more recent Determined argues provocatively against free will.
Sapolsky is admired for synthesizing vast scientific terrain into engaging, illuminating books about why humans and animals behave as they do.
by Robert Sapolsky
The follow-up to Behave makes the full case that free will is an illusion — that every decision we make is the product of biology, environment, and history we did not choose. Sapolsky argues this should change not just our self-understanding but the moral and legal frameworks we use to judge human behavior.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Disclosure: Amazon links on this page are affiliate links. If you purchase through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.