With her trademark wit and sly humor, Hannah Holmes takes readers into the amazing world of personality and modern brain science. Using the Five Factor Model, which slices temperaments into the major factors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness) and minor facets (such as impulsive, artistic, or cautious), Holmes demonstrates how our genes and brains dictate which factors and facets each of us displays. Are you a Nervous Nelly? Your amygdala is probably calling the shots. Hyperactive Hal? It’s all about the dopamine.
Each facet took root deep in the evolution of life on Earth, with Nature allowing enough personal variation to see a species through good times and bad. Just as there are introverted and extroverted people, there are introverted and extroverted mice, and even starfish. In fact, the personality genes we share with mice make them invaluable models for the study of disorders like depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety. Thus it is deep and ancient biases that guide your dealings with a very modern world. Your personality helps to determine the political party you support, the car you drive, the way you eat M&Ms, and the likelihood that you’ll cheat on your spouse.
Drawing on data from top research laboratories, the lives of her eccentric friends, the conflicts that plague her own household, and even the habits of her two pet mice, Hannah Holmes summarizes the factors that shape you. And what she proves is that it does take all kinds. Even the most irksome and trying personality you’ve ever encountered contributes to the diversity of our species. And diversity is the key to our survival.
With her trademark wit and sly humor, Hannah Holmes takes readers into the amazing world of personality and modern brain science. Using the Five Factor Model, which slices temperaments into the major factors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness) and minor facets (such as impulsive, artistic, or cautious), Holmes demonstrates how our genes and brains dictate which factors and facets each of us displays. Are you a Nervous Nelly? Your amygdala is probably calling the shots. Hyperactive Hal? It’s all about the dopamine.
Each facet took root deep in the evolution of life on Earth, with Nature allowing enough personal variation to see a species through good times and bad. Just as there are introverted and extroverted people, there are introverted and extroverted mice, and even starfish. In fact, the personality genes we share with mice make them invaluable models for the study of disorders like depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety. Thus it is deep and ancient biases that guide your dealings with a very modern world. Your personality helps to determine the political party you support, the car you drive, the way you eat M&Ms, and the likelihood that you’ll cheat on your spouse.
Drawing on data from top research laboratories, the lives of her eccentric friends, the conflicts that plague her own household, and even the habits of her two pet mice, Hannah Holmes summarizes the factors that shape you. And what she proves is that it does take all kinds. Even the most irksome and trying personality you’ve ever encountered contributes to the diversity of our species. And diversity is the key to our survival.
Reviews-
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December 20, 2010
The contours of the human soul emerge from the scamperings of mutant rodents in this sprightly exposition of the biological roots of behavior. Science journalist Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape) tours neurology and psychology labs the world over where genetically engineered mice, rats, and voles explore mazes; survive shocks, dunkings, and being hung upside down by their tails; get hooked on cocaine and have their brains probed for chemicals. Amid their ordeals, Holmes contends, they display rudimentary, pint-sized versions of human personality traits like anxiety, cheerfulness, altruism, self-discipline, and even artsiness. Holmes links their travails to deft explorations of the latest research into human psychology and makes insightful firsthand observations of specific personalities, from her own shy neuroticism to her husband's impulsive extroversion and scientists' quivering dread of animal rights "terrorists." The author's take is relentlessly mechanistic: personality, in her view, is largely the product of genes, governed by the involuntary action of hormones and neurotransmitters, and explained by potted speculations about evolutionary advantages that are interesting if not always convincing. Fortunately, her tart reductionism ("Spark, schmark!... Humans have no more sacred spark in our personality than squirrels do") is softened by sympathetic reportage and whimsical humor. -
December 15, 2010
Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself, 2009, etc.) delves into the diversity of human personalities.
"[T]he key to personality is that there's no single solution that answers every risk," writes the author, who has shown a feisty, learned hand at decoding the brain's workings for a popular audience. Half of our personality is genetically knit into our DNA ("personality isn't personal. It's biological. It's a series of dials—Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness—each set to a different temperature"), while our environment calibrates the other half—nature and nurture. Holmes deploys the "Five Factor Model," which breaks down personality into openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, each with various facets. This model is far from a scientific tool—it describes but does not explain the function of a personality facet—but it is one of the best guides available to our natural inclinations and for identifying risks for personality disorders. The author uses a template to examine many of these facets—how they are manifested in mice, then humans, and the facets' evolutionary advantages. A relaxed, almost chummy, tone permeates the book ("Yeah, I was anxious from an early age"), which puts the reader at ease as Holmes describes neurotransmitters, brain regions and their role in personality formation. Less successful is the author's template. Too often the personality traits don't pertain to mice—"Mice are hard pressed to demonstrate every facet of Openness"; "mice don't demonstrate much in the way of intellectual style"—and because much of this material is in the realm of conjecture, anecdotes abound, which can be entertaining and illuminating—the author's scrutiny of addiction, for example—but can also be painfully obvious at times: "People with a strong imagination are able to stimulate their minds from within."
An intriguing but hardly groundbreaking consideration of the qualities that distinguish us.
(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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December 15, 2010
Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself, 2009, etc.) delves into the diversity of human personalities.
"[T]he key to personality is that there's no single solution that answers every risk," writes the author, who has shown a feisty, learned hand at decoding the brain's workings for a popular audience. Half of our personality is genetically knit into our DNA ("personality isn't personal. It's biological. It's a series of dials--Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness--each set to a different temperature"), while our environment calibrates the other half--nature and nurture. Holmes deploys the "Five Factor Model," which breaks down personality into openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, each with various facets. This model is far from a scientific tool--it describes but does not explain the function of a personality facet--but it is one of the best guides available to our natural inclinations and for identifying risks for personality disorders. The author uses a template to examine many of these facets--how they are manifested in mice, then humans, and the facets' evolutionary advantages. A relaxed, almost chummy, tone permeates the book ("Yeah, I was anxious from an early age"), which puts the reader at ease as Holmes describes neurotransmitters, brain regions and their role in personality formation. Less successful is the author's template. Too often the personality traits don't pertain to mice--"Mice are hard pressed to demonstrate every facet of Openness"; "mice don't demonstrate much in the way of intellectual style"--and because much of this material is in the realm of conjecture, anecdotes abound, which can be entertaining and illuminating--the author's scrutiny of addiction, for example--but can also be painfully obvious at times: "People with a strong imagination are able to stimulate their minds from within."
An intriguing but hardly groundbreaking consideration of the qualities that distinguish us.
(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
- USA Today "Fascinating . . . a feast of provocative science and engaging trivia."
- People "Smart and upbeat, [The Well-Dressed Ape] will leave you prouder of your links to wild things."
- St. Petersburg Times "The Well-Dressed Ape is a hoot."
- Outside "Amusing and illuminating."
- The Washington Post Book World "Full of interesting facts."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Juicy and humorous."
- Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Packing for Mars "What an amazing book. I don't often use the term 'life-changing,' but Quirk is. I read this book and a light went on. Suddenly, I understand the people around me. To learn that we are motivated by the same basic brain chemicals and structures as mice is oddly, profoundly, liberating."
- Joanne Manaster, joannelovesscience.com "With her typical charm, curiosity, and ability to make complex science accessible and amusing, Hannah Holmes now turns her attention to the quirks of our personalities. What a wonderfully engaging way to navel-gaze."
- Sam Gosling, Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin and author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You "At long last! I expect Hannah Holmes' delightful new book to usher in -- finally -- a science-based approach to thinking about how and why individuals differ, and to usher out the widespread nonsense that has for far too long passed as a personality psychology."
- Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone "Hannah Holmes manages to look at the world through very unique lenses and what she comes up with is extraordinarily perceptive, completely unique and, moreover, makes for great reading. I loved The Well Dressed Ape. Her new book Quirk has topped even that marvelous book."
- Amy Sutherland, author of What Shamu Taught Me About Love, Lif "For as long as we've had language, we've been asking one question over and over: 'What makes me "me"?' Hannah Holmes finds fascinating answers to that question in the world of brain science. A divine spark of a book, Quirk explains how chemicals and brain lobes conspire to make us everything from smart alecks to worry warts and ultimately, utterly human."
