A Pelican Introduction

The Domesticated Brain

Bruce Hood is a professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol and the author of SuperSense, The Self Illusion and The Domesticated Brain. He is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the British Psychology Society and the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

What makes us social animals? 
Why do we behave the way we do? 
How does the brain influence our behaviour? 
 
The brain may have initially evolved to cope with a threatening world of beasts, limited food and adverse weather, but we now use it to navigate an equally unpredictable social landscape. In The Domesticated Brain, renowned psychologist Bruce Hood explores the relationship between the brain and social behaviour, looking for clues as to origins and operations of the mechanisms that keep us bound together. How do our brains enable us to live together, to raise children, and to learn and pass on information and culture? Combining social psychology with neuroscience, Hood provides an essential introduction to the hidden operations of the brain, and explores what makes us who we are.

Bruce Hood

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Bruce Hood convincingly shows that we are possessed with possessions, but his book is one possession you have to have, especially now. Engagingly written, Possessed brings psychological science to bear on understanding how to exorcise this demon.

Robert Plomin, author of 'Blueprint: How DNA makes us who we are'

Science writing at its best: it's funny, smart, and on an fascinating topic.

Ownership is a surprisingly nuanced and wonderfully colorful topic, and no one is better poised to tell its story than psychologist and author Bruce Hood. The book he's written is a page-turner that puts our intuitions under the spotlight at every turn.

David Eagleman, bestselling author of 'The Brain' and 'Incognito'

Bruce Hood's excellent new book upends the concept of possession and ownership . . . Possessed combines philosophy with rigorous experimental research to examine the reasons why we want to own so much more than we need. Hood's writing is crisp and he covers an impressive range for such a slim volume. For practical strategies to declutter, read Marie Kondo. For those interested in the psychology and philosophy of materialism, this rich and engaging book will spark hours of joy.

Why We Want More Than We Need

You may not believe it, but there is a link between our current political instability and your childhood attachment to teddy bears. There's also a reason why children in Asia are more likely to share than their Western counterparts and why the poor spend more of their income on luxury goods than the rich. Or why your mother is more likely to leave her money to you than your father. What connects these things? 
 
The answer is our need for ownership. Award-winning psychologist Bruce Hood draws on research from his own lab and others around the world to explain why this uniquely human preoccupation governs our behaviour from the cradle to the grave, even when it is often irrational and destructive. What motivates us to buy more than we need? Is it innate, or cultural? How does our urge to acquire control our behaviour, even the way we vote? And what can we do about it? 
 
Timely, engaging and persuasive, Possessed is the first book to explore how ownership has us enthralled in relentless pursuit of a false happiness, with damaging consequences for society and the planet - and how we can stop buying into it.

Possessed

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Praise for Possessed

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.

Books by Bruce Hood

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