The subtitle of this remarkable book written by Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan is “From sex to money to food, Taming our primal instincts.” The first sentence grabbed my attention. “Consider this book an owner’s manual for your brain.” That is followed a bit later by warning us that our brains have minds of their own and sometimes (or often) they encourage us to do things that aren’t in our best interest. For example, our genes encourage us to eat in excess when food is plentiful to survive when food is scarce. The trouble is that food is seldom scarce for some of us.

We also enjoy having nice things and spend money to have them in times of plenty. That might have worked well when we had to use actual cash and noticed when it was gone. Credit cards allow us to buy pretty and fun things without the need for cash. Making yourself pay off the credit card balance when the bill arrives is one way to learn when you aren’t in a time of plenty. Learning to save doesn’t come naturally. Surveys indicate people want to save ten percent of their income, but the reality is that the average savings is less than one percent. The authors say they found they had to hide money from themselves in the form of automatic withdrawals into some kind of investment or savings account. Another interesting discussion is about how we are genetically programmed to be lazy. This comes from when energy in the form of food was often hard to obtain and frivolous activity wasted energy. “The only people who exercise in poor countries are the privileged…” Animals that expend energy needlessly die and their genes die with them.”

The lure of drugs and alcohol is explained. Caffeine is the most frequently used drug. David Letterman said, “If it weren’t for coffee, I’d have no discernible personality at all.” It isn’t all that surprising “…that sperm do a little caffeine dance. Following exposure to extreme doses, sperm swim faster and wiggle more vigorously…” Caffeine seems safe for most people, but that isn’t true of other drugs. Nicotine addiction and smoking contribute to hundreds of thousands of death annually. Rats in a cage with unlimited amounts of both food and cocaine consume the cocaine ravenously until they starve to death. The book explains that the cocaine stimulates the parts of the brain that are called “do-it-again” centers. Drugs and sex are both credited with stimulating that part of the brain..

Thrill-seeking genes are said to take us for a ride. People seem to lose all sense of statistics to experience a thrill as proven by the amount of money spent on lotteries. The odds of winning the California lottery, which requires matching all six numbers drawn randomly, is one in eighteen million. A person is nine times more likely to die from falling out of bed. It isn’t surprising casinos operators are experts at understanding human nature. They know that people are more confident gambling against someone who is a poorly dressed bumbler. That’s why blackjack dealers in the casinos wear silly clothes.

Risky behavior stimulates the chemical reward systems in the brain and keeps roller coasters and bungee jumps operating. There is a “novelty-seeking gene” that is prevalent in groups whose ancestors migrated further. South Americans ancestors began in Africa, traveled to Asia, crossed the land bridge to North America, and then took the long trek south. Two thirds of South Americans have the novelty-seeking gene compared to one fourth of Africans and Europeans. On the contrary, there are many businesses that make their money by appealing to us to reduce risk. We should recognize that insurance policies and appliance warranties will, on the average, lose money.

One of the authors loved the thrill of stock market risks. The internet and a broker that allowed trades at low costs lured him into rapid-fire day trading. He realized that he was unhappy even though he was making money (he must have been one of the few day traders making money). His solution was to switch to a traditional broker with higher fees and a slower response. What had been a trade that required a few mouse clicks and a small fee now required a phone call and a hefty commission. Problem solved?  We seek thrills through watching sporting events and cheer for our team to crush the opponents. Men who have won a sporting event and the male fans of the winning team have higher levels of testosterone than those on the losing side.

Much of the book is about how we attract and are attracted to our mates. That stems from the instinctive urge to pass along our genes. There are many examples and descriptions of the rituals followed by animals and how they select their mates. The dominant elephant seal spends three months fighting and breeding. He can’t take time to eat, and he usually doesn’t make it to the next year. However, his genes are passed on to as many as a hundred offspring. Male elephant seals aren’t alone in giving up quantity of life for quality of life. In the early 1900s it was a frequent practice to castrate men committed to sanitariums. These testosterone-free men lived on the average fifteen years longer than their testosterone-crazed counterparts. There is a poll question that gives an interesting answer to the issue of gender inequality. “Fifty years ago, most women wanted to come back as men and not a single man wanted to come back as a woman. In 1996, men still liked being men but women said they’d prefer to be reborn as a woman.”

There is a chapter describing how we search for our mates, and it isn’t surprising that healthy and robust people are more attractive. Female rabbits require the suitor to chase them large distances before allowing breeding. Snakes engage in vigorous wrestling before sex. “The meek may inherit the earth, but they will not be the descendants of slow rabbits or weak snakes.” “All animals seek mates that will help them in their quest for successful reproduction.”

There is a chapter on infidelity, and the British may hold the record. “When cheating leads to husbands who are not fathers, it is called cuckoldry. A British study found a cuckoldry rate of about 10%.” Other societies are estimated to have a rate of about 1 in 30. There are details of how male animals and insects have an array of means to make certain they are the father of the children. The black widow male breaks his sexual organ inside the female, which prevents her from mating again. His punishment is being killed and eaten by the female. The nourishment he provides is used to produce his offspring. Human males have less dramatic means of “mate guarding.” It begins with signaling to other teenage males that the girl is “taken” by having her wear is ring on a necklace or his letter jacket. Wedding rings are another sign of “keep away.”

There is another chapter discussing the family bond. “An ancient maxim says, ‘Me against my brothers, me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my brothers and cousins against my clan, me and my clan against the world.”  However, if an asteroid killed everyone on Earth except in Africa, 93% of genetic material would still be present. Even people of other clans aren’t that different.

There is much more to this book, but I’m at my self-imposed limit. I’ll close by quoting from the book. “We should enjoy our animal passions and even indulge them but prevent them from controlling us. The key to a satisfying life is finding a middle ground that combines free-flowing pleasure, iron willpower, and the crafty manipulation of ourselves.”

Some of the very few negative reviews on Amazon blast the book for the simplicity. I enjoyed the non-technical, conversational writing style.

The authors have a web site where you can read about them and see the book cover than is significantly more colorful than the plain silver hard cover on the one I read.