Science Arts Environment

Robert Sapolsky: How Much Agency Do We Have Over Our Behavior?

by NPR/TED Staff

We're all a confusing mixture of an array of impulses...our nature is to be context dependent on our behavior. - Robert Sapolsky
We're all a confusing mixture of an array of impulses...our nature is to be context dependent on our behavior. - Robert Sapolsky TED

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Hardwired.

About Robert Sapolsky's TED Talk

Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky says nearly all aspects of human behavior are explained by biology: from developments millions of years in the past to microscopic reactions happening in the present.

About Robert Sapolsky

Robert Sapolsky is a primatologist and a professor of neuroscience at Stanford University. His current research examines how stress alters personality patterns and social behavior.

Sapolsky's latest book, Behave: The Biology of Humans At Our Best And Worst, tries to answer the question, why do we do the things we do?

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

300x250 Ad

More TED Radio Hour

300x250 Ad

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Donate