Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods Books
Brian Hare is an evolutionary anthropologist and founder of the Duke Canine Cognition Center at Duke University. Vanessa Woods is a research scientist and award-winning author.
Known for: Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
Books by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity
In this groundbreaking work, evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare and science writer Vanessa Woods argue that friendliness—our ability to cooperate and connect—is the key to human success. Drawing o...
The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
The Genius of Dogs explores the remarkable intelligence of man's best friend, revealing how dogs evolved to understand humans better than any other species. Drawing on groundbreaking research from the...
Key Insights from Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
Friendliness as an Evolutionary Advantage: Comparing Humans, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees
Picture two cousins of ours, equally close genetic relatives, yet strikingly different in their societies. Chimpanzees live by dominance and hierarchy—males compete violently for power, and alliances often crumble in brutal contests. Bonobos, however, offer a glimpse of what evolution can achieve wh...
From Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity
Self-Domestication: How Humans Evolved by Taming Themselves
One of the most fascinating ideas that emerged from our research is that humans, over thousands of generations, have undergone a process similar to what we call domestication—but we did it to ourselves. When animals are domesticated—from wolves becoming dogs to wild cats becoming house pets—certain ...
From Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity
The Evolutionary Partnership
Thousands of years ago, before agriculture or cities, humans and wolves walked side by side — cautiously at first. Our ancestors hunted on the plains, scavenging what they could, and so did wolves. Somewhere along the way, a spark of trust appeared. Perhaps it was a less fearful wolf, willing to app...
From The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
The Domestication Hypothesis
The key to understanding dog cognition lies in what I call the ‘Domestication Hypothesis.’ It’s the idea that dogs became intelligent not because they learned to solve problems, but because they evolved to solve problems with us. The selective pressure wasn’t on independence or aggression, but on fr...
From The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
About Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
Brian Hare is an evolutionary anthropologist and founder of the Duke Canine Cognition Center at Duke University. Vanessa Woods is a research scientist and award-winning author. Together, they have conducted extensive research on animal cognition and human-animal relationships.
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Brian Hare is an evolutionary anthropologist and founder of the Duke Canine Cognition Center at Duke University. Vanessa Woods is a research scientist and award-winning author.
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