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Robert R. Provine

Robert Provine

Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond Paperback – 25 April 2014

by Robert R. Provine (Author)

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Robert Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread-in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified human behaviors. Upon investigation, these instinctive acts bear the imprint of our evolutionary origins and can be uniquely valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species. Many activities showcased in "Curious Behavior" are contagious, but none surpasses yawning in this regard-just reading the word can make one succumb. Though we often take it as a sign of sleepiness or boredom, yawning holds clues to the development of our sociality and ability to empathize with others. Its inescapable transmission reminds us that we are sometimes unaware, neurologically programmed beasts of the herd. Other neglected behaviors yield similar revelations. Tickling, we learn, may be the key to programming personhood into robots. Coughing comes in musical, medical, and social varieties. Farting and belching have import for the evolution of human speech. And prenatal behavior is offered as the strangest exhibit of all, defying postnatal logic in every way. Our earthiest acts define "Homo sapiens" as much as language, bipedalism, tool use, and other more studied characteristics. As Provine guides us through peculiarities right under our noses, he beckons us to follow with self-experiments: tickling our own feet, keeping a log of when we laugh, and attempting to suppress yawns and sneezes. Such humble investigations provide fodder for grade school science projects as well as doctoral dissertations. Small Science can yield big rewards.

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Robert R Provine

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Product details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (25 April 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674284135
ISBN-13: 978-0674284135
Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 2.2 x 20.9 cm
Customer reviews: 24 customer ratings
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 953,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1050 in Pre-clinical Medicine
- #680 in Physical Anthropology
- #1261 in Physiology

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Review

Readers will enjoy the stories and find the glimpses into the neuroscience of these curious behaviors engaging. --K. S. Milar"Choice" (01/01/2013)

"Why do we yawn, tickle, laugh, cough, scratch, sneeze, hiccup, vomit, or cry? Robert Provine has investigated these and other behaviours, and the result is beautifully written and constantly surprising. He is a neuroscientist who scorns neural reductionism, and is charmingly funny, dotting his exegesis with laconic flashes of thematic silliness or amused humility. --Guardian

About the Author

Robert R. Provine is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

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5 star		42%
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3 star		26%
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Avid Reader

Curious and Fantastic Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2012

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I ordered this book originally on Amazon.com, where it has been available for over a week and enjoyed it so much, I have ordered a number of more copies from Amazon.co.uk for Christmas presents. The author's intellectual, insightful and often humorous approach to this material made it among the most enjoyable "science" books I have ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an inquisitive mind and an appreciation of a masterful, yet down-to-earth handling of these most "familiar" topics.

4 people found this helpful

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R. de Fougerolles

Bedside book for guests

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2013

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This book is full of gems and makes an excellent bedside book for guests in that the content is a series of short stories on various curious phenomena. A fun book that will animate many a dinner party. This is definitely a book you can dine out on!

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Anthony Lauder

Very insightful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 May 2013

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I bought this for my wife, who is a journalist, and was researching the history of laughter. She used it extensively in her work, and described it as excellent.

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Yanne

Made me yawn, laugh, gross out!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2013

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This is a fun read, but I think best read a bit at a time otherwise it becomes a little repetitive.

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D_shrink

A Strange but fun read on Evolutionary Behavior

Reviewed in the United States on 16 September 2012

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As the author states he may be discussing some things in the smaller venues of science, but that doesn't mean they aren't interesting. The book is a microcosm of everyday things we take for granted and for which minimal hard research has been done over the years, which is in many cases what peaked the author's interest in the various things he reports on.

I found the first chapter on yawning to be the most interesting in the book. We learn such things as:
1. Yawning holds clues as to the development of our sociability and ability to empathize with others
2. "[T]he contagiousness of yawns is so potent that simply discussing yawns triggers yawns." I found that to be true in reading this particular chapter.
3. We are informed that turtles, snakes, birds, and even fish yawn
4. Typical falsehoods regarding yawns are -
a) it is caused by tiredness
b) it is caused by too high a level of CO2 in the blood
I won't spoil it for you as to what causes yawns, so you'll need to read the book to find out.

The chapter on laughter was simply fascinating, especially when I found out the women laugh more than men and that they truly like men who can make them laugh. Yep, according to the professor, that part of the dating game is the truth.

As for crying we find out that:
1. A crying baby increases breast temperature and prolactin levels in lactating females
2. Crying in babies increases from birth to about six weeks and then decreases in intensity and duration to about four months at which level it stays until the baby is about a year old.

Regarding the chapter on tears [p80-81], we are informed that elephants, chimps, and newborn humans cannot cry emotional tears. You'll need to read to find out the purpose behind them.

One fascinating thing told in the chapter on hiccups [p130] was of the Iowa farmer named Charles Osborne who began hiccuping in 1922 and didn't stop until 1990. Obviously he was in the Guinness book of World Records for his feat, but he didn't let such a thing as hiccuping slow him down as he was married twice, ran several businesses and had eight kids. :) BTW he died at 98 from complications of ulcers.

Yet the most humorous chapter in the book was the next to last in which the author gave a rather thorough discussion of flatulence and burping. It seems that a Frenchman by the name of Joseph Pujols [1857-1945] who was nicknamed Le Petomane [you'll love the English translation of that] was the headliner at the Moulin Rouge from 1892-1914 and the highest paid entertainer in the world, beating out the second highest Sarah Bernhardt. Without discussing his other wonderments, it was stated he could give a loud and emphatic rendition of the Marseille using flatulence only. Also the only animals that communicate using flatulence are herrings. You can't make this stuff up, it is simply too weird to be false. Let me just say that you'll think this chapter is a REAL GAS.

None of the science behind this stuff will win you a Nobel Prize, but it is a lot of fun to read about it.

12 people found this helpful

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C. Hooten

Worth a look (or two)

Reviewed in the United States on 11 January 2013

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This book covers territory that is rarely addressed and barely brushed past in most psych classes, and almost never mentioned in physiology except for the most extreme cases, as though the everyday noises and such that virtually every human experiences at least sometimes were of no consequence. He makes a good case for at least informal study of these by noting which are under some voluntary control (like laughing), which contribute to social interactions (tickling and, believe it or not, yawning!), and a number of other criteria that he discusses with appropriate humor and a certain tongue-in-cheek irreverence that makes the learning about these things we take for granted FUN! The author is a professor of psychology at UMBC, and a neuroscientist, and clearly one of those teachers I wish I'd had in college. His book is an enjoyable step away from the dead-seriousness of ordinary psych and neurophysiology, was enough to make me wonder why there are no studies of these ubiquitous human behaviors.

4 people found this helpful

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Book Shark

Entertaining Book!

Reviewed in the United States on 25 September 2012

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Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping and Beyond by Robert R. Provine

"Curious Behavior" is an interesting yet incomplete pop-science book that covers our most curious behaviors. A mostly neglected area of science, this book covers the "other" familiar areas that are part of being human. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Robert R. Provine has written a stimulating book on the everyday quirks of behavior. This 288-page book is composed of the following thirteen chapters (curious behaviors): 1. Yawning, 2. Laughing, 3. Vocal crying, 4. Emotional tearing, 5. White of the eyes, 6. Coughing, 7. Sneezing, 8. Hiccupping, 9. Vomiting and nausea, 10. Tickling, 11. Itching and scratching, 12. Farting and belching and 13. Prenatal behavior.

Positives:
1. Accessible popular science book that is fun to read while educational at the same time.
2. Neuroscience and psychology made fun. Quirks in our behavior, a fascinating topic.
3. The book's focus is to compare behaviors instead of organisms. The scientific approach used is ethology, the evolutionary based, biological study of behavior.
4. Yawning is the most complete chapter with plenty of examples enhanced with good illustrations. The four yawn variants.
5. The roots of sociality. The factors that contributed to it.
6. The author does a good job of letting the reader know what is backed by science versus what is folklore. In some instances, they are one and the same.
7. The importance of unconscious processes.
8. The peculiarities of laughter. The difference between genders. The contrast between human and chimpanzee laughter. The basis for bipedal theory of speech evolution.
9. Thought-provoking quotes, "Laughter is more about relationships than humor."
10. The difference between spontaneous and contagious crying. The difference between crying and laughter. Samples of pathological crying and laughter.
11. The uniquely human trait of emotional tearing. The tear effect.
12. The importance of the sclera (white of the eyes), social signaling.
13. The many causes of coughing. Cough variants.
14. The causes and phases of sneezing. Variations in sneezes.
15. Cures for bouts of hiccups. How little we know.
16. A look at the causes of vomiting and nausea. A look at bulimia.
17. The social play of tickling.
18. The link between itching and scratching.
19. The extraordinary "gift" of one Frenchman Joseph Pujol (1857-1945), with a curious stage name.
20. An "inside" look at prenatal behavior. "The most critical and least understood events in human life occur between conception and birth."
21. The behavioral keyboard.
22. Links to notes and references provided

Negatives:
1. The science is incomplete as made clear by the author. Not a reflection on the author but if you the reader are expecting conclusive data or something close to it on these matters you will be disappointed. Enough to whet the appetite but not enough to satisfy the hunger.
2. The author could have done a better job of letting the reader know what the current scientific consensus is outside of his own research.
3. The chapter on yawning was a high standard established early on that quite frankly the other chapters couldn't live up to.
4. Despite the fun nature of the topic, I felt the author didn't always let loose and the prose became dryer in those instances.

In summary, though incomplete I enjoyed this book. It covers fascinating quirks of human behavior ("Small" Science because it doesn't require a big budget) that has been neglected by science. It's a fun way to learn about human peculiarities and the author provided the reader with a lot of interesting tidbits. If you are looking for a popular science that addresses the often neglected quirks of being human, this book is worth reading.

Further suggestions: " Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (Vintage) " by Leonard Mlodinow, " The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature " by Steven Pinker, " Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique " by Michael S. Gazzaniga, " SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable " by Bruce M. Hood, " The Third Basic Instinct: How Religion Doesn't Get You (Revised Edition) " by Ales S. Key, " Brain Cuttings: Fifteen Journeys Through the Mind " by Carl Zimmer, " The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution " by Gregory Cochran, " Why Evolution Is True " by Jerry A. Coyne, " Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body " by Neil Shubin and " Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing " by Kathryn Bowers.

5 people found this helpful

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W. Cheung

Thoroughly fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on 5 December 2012

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This book is a collection of essays on behavior that we cannot normally control or initiate, and through these it illustrates how social we humans are - witness the contagiousness of yawning, laughing, itching and scratching. The purposes of these behavior are also speculated upon, always convincingly. Humor also perfuses the pages. The final chapter on Prenatal Behavior is a gem - the concept of behavior shaping the brain is utterly profound. Five stars.

2 people found this helpful

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pkbrowning

An interesting look at everyday behaviors

Reviewed in the United States on 15 April 2013

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Does covering your mouth when you yawn help others avoid the yawn contagion? How do you cure the hiccups? What's the Guinness world record for loudest belch? So this might not be the deepest realm of imponderables regarding human behavior, but precisely because such things tend to be overlooked, perhaps it's worth taking some time to consider that maybe such everyday considerations really can tell us something important about ourselves precisely these are the things that we live with, day in and day out. Provine's review of what we know about such things to date is both informative and humorous, and one need not fear being bogged down in heavy physiology or psychology reading this book. My only complaint is that it felt short, with the coverage of some of the subjects feeling superficial, although often that's unfortunately just because there isn't more information available because the topics have been overlooked by researchers.

4 people found this helpful

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