The Village Effect cover art

The Village Effect

How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter

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The Village Effect

By: Susan Pinker
Narrated by: Donna Postel
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About this listen

From birth to death, human beings are hardwired to connect to other human beings. Face-to-face contact matters: tight bonds of friendship and love heal us, help children learn, extend our lives, and make us happy. Looser in-person bonds matter too, combining with our close relationships to form a personal "village" around us, one that exerts unique effects. Marrying the findings of the new field of social neuroscience together with gripping human stories, Susan Pinker explores the impact of face-to-face contact from cradle to grave, from city to Sardinian mountain village, from classroom to workplace, from love to marriage to divorce. Most of us have left the literal village behind and don't want to give up our new technologies to go back there. But, as Pinker writes so compellingly, we need close social bonds and uninterrupted face time with our friends and families in order to thrive-even to survive. Creating our own "village effect" can make us happier. It can also save our lives.

©2014 Susan Pinker (P)2014 Tantor Aging & Longevity Anthropology Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Social Psychology & Interactions Happiness Mental Health Health Longevity Village

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All stars
Most relevant
This is the kind of book I like. Well-researched, informative, has the right mixture between scene-setting/stories and scientific information without padding. The style is engaging and easy to read. There's plenty in it that I didn't already know. Recommended.

Informative, Interesting.

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I really love the book has inspired me to change my life and to seek living in groups I've ever the narration seemed to be by a robot

tremendous exceptional

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Found it to be a very compelling and we'll developed narrative around the power of social binds. listening to it in post pandemic 2024, I found myself curious about how the trends have evolved and what an updated look at the evidence would show. The analysis has some gaps in terms of looking at the drivers (profit, capitalism) and structural racism that interact with the village effect. Would love to read a second edition!

Evidence based with useful annecdotes

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