Frans de Waal

Different is a ground-breaking look at gender and sex from the world's leading primatologist and New York Times bestselling author of Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? 'Brilliant and fascinating... brings a scientific, compassionate and balanced approach to some of the hottest controversies about sex and gender' — Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens, Homo Deus...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this groundbreaking and entertaining book, primatologist Frans de Waal draws on his renowned studies of the social and emotional lives of chimpanzees, bonobos, and other primates, along with personal encounters with many other species, to illuminate new ideas and findings about animal emotions. Opening with the moving farewell between Mama, a dying chimpanzee matriarch,...

For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbours and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behaviour in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness. Interweaving vivid tales from the animal kingdom with thoughtful philosophical analysis, de Waal seeks a bottom-up explanation...

What separates your mind from the mind of an animal? Maybe you think it's your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future—all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the pre-eminent species on Earth. But in recent decades, claims of human superiority have been eroded by a revolution in the study...

'Kindness and co-operation have played a crucial role in raising humans to the top of the evolutionary tree...We have thrived on the milk of human kindness.' - Observer 'There is a widely-held assumption that humans are hard-wired for relentless and ruthless competition...Frans de Waal sees nature differently - as a biological legacy in which empathy, not mere self-interest, is shared...

We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? From a scientist and writer whom E.O. Wilson has called 'the world authority on primate social behaviour' comes a lively look at the most provocative aspects of human nature:...