Books like Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

01

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah · Memoir

Born a Crime is Trevor Noah's memoir about growing up mixed-race in South Africa during the final years of apartheid and its chaotic aftermath.

Both dig into belonging.

02

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman · Psychology

Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, published in 1995, made a widely influential argument: that the cluster of abilities involved in managing emotions — self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skill — predicts life outcomes at least as well as IQ, and possibly better in many domains.

Both dig into empathy.

03

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett · Psychology

Lisa Feldman Barrett is a neuroscientist and psychologist at Northeastern University who has spent thirty years studying emotion, and her conclusion challenges the most widely held view of what emotions are.

A kindred psychology read.

04

The Social Animal

Elliot Aronson · Psychology

Elliot Aronson is one of the most influential social psychologists in the history of the field, and The Social Animal, first published in 1972 and now in its twelfth edition, is the textbook introduction to social psychology that has shaped how generations of students think about human behavior.

A kindred psychology read.

05

The Happiness Hypothesis

Jonathan Haidt · Psychology

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU who spent the early part of his career studying morality and happiness, and this book — published in 2006, before his work on political psychology brought him wider attention — synthesizes ancient philosophical wisdom with modern psychological research.

A kindred psychology read.

06

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Daniel Goleman · Psychology

Daniel Goleman's follow-up to Emotional Intelligence shifts focus from the inner world to the social.

Shares social neuroscience and empathy with Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect.

07

Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

Paul Bloom · Psychology

Paul Bloom's argument is not that we should care less about others.

Both dig into empathy.

08

Atlas of the Heart

Brené Brown · Psychology

Atlas of the Heart is Brené Brown's attempt to map eighty-seven distinct human emotions and experiences — not as a clinical taxonomy but as a practical vocabulary for people who want to communicate more precisely about what they feel.

Both dig into connection.

09

Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be

Becky Kennedy · Psychology

Good Inside is clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy's guide to a parenting philosophy built around one central premise: children are fundamentally good inside, and difficult behaviors are not character flaws or manipulation but signals of unmet needs or underdeveloped skills.

Both dig into connection.

10

I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't)

Brené Brown · Psychology

I Thought It Was Just Me is Brené Brown's first major book, written from her research on shame as a social scientist.

Both dig into connection.

11

Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil

Paul Bloom · Psychology

Paul Bloom's central question is how much morality is innate versus learned.

Both dig into empathy.

12

On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

Carl R. Rogers · Psychology

Carl Rogers wrote this book in 1961 as an attempt to communicate his therapeutic approach to readers outside the consulting room.

Both dig into empathy.