Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life : A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity are Revolutionizing Our View of Human Nature

The founder of social evolutionary psychology - known as much for his outsized personality as for his brilliance - gives us a singular tour of the human mind.

In "Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life", social psychologist Douglas Kenrick integrates cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and the science of complexity to paint a fuller picture than ever before of the simple and selfish rules that govern our lives, influencing how we seek friendships, status, and self-protection; how we choose mates; how we raise children - and even how we shop for a car.

But such rules needn't make selfish or simple people.

Out of their interaction emerge the patterned and complex societies and people we see, and all the one-night stands, racial prejudices, self-serving nepotism, porn addictions, artistic creativity, economic consumption, religion, and politics that a gregarious species can handle.

Many books on evolutionary psychology seem to suggest that, because we are apes, we can't be expected to do anything but act like them. By exploring the nuance of social psychology and the surprising results of his own work, Kenrick gives a much fuller picture of what makes us caring, creative, and complex-that is, fully human.

Illuminated with stories from Kenrick's eventful and colorful life, "Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of life" is an exploration of our biological inheritance, our mental biases and failures, and our mind's great successes.