Evolutionary Psychology
www.epjournal.net – 2013. 11(4): 818-820
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Book Review
How Sidewalk Neuroscience Illuminates Important, yet Frequently
Overlooked and Underappreciated, Aspects of Human Nature
A review of Robert Provine, Curious Behavior. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2012, 271 pp., US $24.95, ISBN # 978-0-674-04851-5 (hardcover).
Andrew C. Gallup, Psychology Department, SUNY College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, USA. Email:
a.c.gallup@gmail.com (Corresponding author).
Craig F. Bielert, Psychology Department, SUNY College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, USA.
A quick scan of the spine titles and authors at your local bookstore science section shelves might lead you to overlook Curious Behavior, since it is a small book. The author’s name, “Provine”, however, might trigger a recollection of names such as Victor Hamburger, Rita Levi-Montalcini and Konrad Lorenz and you might as a consequence pick up the volume and page through it. This extra attention is worth the effort. Provine’s focus in this book is on what he terms, “elemental human behaviors”. Well-steeped in the tradition of those such as Lorenz, he carries out contrasts between behaviors rather than specifically between phyla and this “small science” approach is refreshingly appropriate, effective and thought provoking.
Most people fail to notice their unconscious bodily actions or behaviors, let alone think much about their underlying mechanisms, correlates or potential functions. But not Robert Provine. He has built a career from this type of scientific investigation, often discovering surprising results and practical insights. In his new book, Curious Behavior, he provides a highly accessible and entertaining overview of some of the least understood and commonly overlooked human behaviors.
The book provides a detailed investigation into the nature of yawning, laughing, vocal crying, emotional tearing, coloration of the eyes (curiously not a behavior at all), coughing, sneezing, hiccupping, vomiting and nausea, tickling, itching and scratching, and
Sidewalk neuroscience illuminates important aspects of human nature
Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 11(4). 2013. -819-
chapter on the discussion and investigation of coughing, he states, “…with expectations so
low, something of interest is bound to show up” (p. 104).
Taking an ethological perspective, Provine sheds light on how we can reconstruct the evolution of various traits, helping to elucidate their functions. For instance, through an investigation of developmental sequence, one notices how vocal crying, a primitive form of communication, emerges at birth, while emotional tearing, a derived and uniquely human feature, does not develop until months after and thus must be a more recently evolved signal. The divergence of other traits, such as laughter, is also investigated through a comparative investigation of non-human primates. Furthermore, Provine highlights how useful neurobehavioral mechanisms are recycled during evolutionary history, meaning that seemingly disparate behaviors may be closer in form and function than traditionally believed. As an example, through a detailed classification and comparison, it is suggested that sneezing may be a modification of the existing motor act of yawning.
Throughout the book, there is reference to a “behavioral keyboard”, which is featured in the appendix and presents the results of a creative experiment by Provine and his colleagues regarding the behaviors outlined. By recording the reaction times of 103
participants to consciously perform blinks, smiles, inhalations, “haha” sounds, coughs,
laughs, yawns, sneezes, hiccups and cries (in ascending order), Provine reveals not only differences in voluntary control, but also differences in mechanism. He notes, “acts having
very different response latencies involve different neurological processes” (p. 217). The “behavioral keyboard” is thought also to reveal differences in social role, since reaction
times for smiles and saying “haha” are much faster than those for laughs. A common feature to most (though not all) of these behaviors, aside from falling outside of conscious control, is their social influence. Throughout the book, Provine emphasizes our sociobiological programming, or collective “human herd behavior”, when describing phenomena such as contagious nature of yawning, laughing, crying, and scratching, as well as psychogenic effects such as tearing or illness (i.e., nausea and vomiting).
The conclusion of the book comes with a chapter highlighting the understudied and underappreciated study of prenatal behavior. With the view that this represents life’s most critical stage, he draws attention to the importance of epigenetic processes at this point in development. Provine also provides compelling arguments for how much can be gained from a more thorough investigation of prenatal behaviors, since they often contrast with the postnatal world in terms of form, function and mechanism, and most are performed well in advance of the age of survival postnatally.
Sidewalk neuroscience illuminates important aspects of human nature
Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 11(4). 2013. -820-
therefore lots of pictures can effectively cover this topic.
In the end, Provine reminds us that there is still much to learn about some of the most basic action patterns of our everyday existence. He provides a compelling account of the importance of such study as well, referencing numerous social and medical applications to this research. This enlightening and thought provoking book is recommended to all interested in behavior from an evolutionary lens, and will hopefully spur additional investigations pertaining to these infrequently studied behaviors. Once opened, the reader is taken on a roller coaster of topics, ranging from doomsday yawns, to links between hiccups
and female fertility, to how eye drops can be used as beauty aids, to using “tickle tests” for
