Books like The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between

01

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · Science

Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.

A kindred psychology read.

02

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt · Psychology

The Righteous Mind is Jonathan Haidt's argument that moral reasoning is not the source of our moral judgments — it's the press secretary for them.

A kindred psychology read.

03

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.

04

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred psychology read.

05

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.

06

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.

07

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.

08

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.

Both dig into empathy.

09

Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

Matthew D. Lieberman · Psychology

Matthew Lieberman is one of the founders of social neuroscience, the field that uses brain imaging and neuroscience methods to study social behavior.

Both dig into empathy.

10

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Gavin de Becker · Psychology

Gavin de Becker's central argument is that fear is a gift, not a problem to manage.

Both dig into fear.

11

The Psychopath Test

Jon Ronson · Psychology

Jon Ronson is a journalist who starts investigating a strange series of anonymous books sent to academics around the world, and ends up spending a year exploring psychopathy, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, and the question of whether the diagnostic categories psychiatry uses are tools for understanding people or labels that do damage of their own.

Both dig into psychopathy.

12

Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert · Self-help

Big Magic is Elizabeth Gilbert's manifesto for living a creative life — not as a professional artistic career but as an orientation toward existence.

Both dig into fear.