William Saletan
In short, the evolutionary logic that makes us different from one another will gradually make us different from ourselves, context by context. Personality — behavior that is "consistent across time and place," as one textbook puts it — will fade. We'll miss characters like Harris, the little woman from New Jersey who boasted of giving psychologists a "wedgie" and tried to solve the puzzle of human nature. There won't be another one like her.
— The New York Times
Kirkus Reviews
As she did in The Nurture Assumption (1998), independent scholar Harris makes waves again with a new theory of personality to explain why no two people are alike. Based on behavioral genetics and evolutionary and social psychology, and fitted into a modular theory of how the brain works (e.g., you have a face-recognition module, a categorization module), she posits three distinct systems as the molders of personality. One is a relationship system that allows babies to distinguish family from strangers and throughout life allows us to build a "mental rolodex" of information on discrete individuals. The second is a socialization system. Sure, parents count, she says, but what turns us into social beings is what happens in school and at play, as we become members of a group, learn the pecking order and absorb the group's culture within the larger cultural context. Third is a status system by which we acquire self-knowledge by measuring how we stand up against rivals, and want to beat them out. These dynamics play out against a hefty genetic contribution that makes individuals more or less aggressive, shy, anxious, attractive and so on. There's a lot to be said in favor of these systems (and genes), and Harris lays out telling points in their defense-while also laying out some of the leading lights of personality psychology for their sins of omission and commission. But is that all? There is something a little too rational and static, a little too game-theoretical in Harris's approach. Sure the systems can explain, as Harris set out to do, why identical twins raised together have distinct personalities. But the model needs tweaking not only to deal with overlaps across systems, but also toexplain how individuals change group dynamics: What forces create the personalities who are the movers and shakers as opposed to those moved and shaken by "the systems"?Credit Harris for moving personality away from simplistic theories-but not far enough away-and expect some lively rebuttals.
Popular Science - Martin O'Brien
"This is an absolute stunner of a popular science book. The author does a brilliant job of demolishing the academic psychology establishment, by questioning a fundamental assumption that was made without properly checking it—that nurture would influence personality. She does all this in a very personal, human fashion, with as much reference to the way traditional crime fiction works as to scientific research."
Steven Pinker
"No Two Alike is another firecracker of a book by the woman who forced the world to rethink how we became who we are. Harris's scholarship and the persuasiveness of her arguments make this book mandatory reading for psychologists; her style, humor, and storytelling skills make it exhilarating reading for everyone."
New York Times - William Salatan
"A display of scientific courage and imagination."
From the Publisher
This is an absolute stunner of a popular science book. The author does a brilliant job of demolishing the academic psychology establishment, by questioning a fundamental assumption that was made without properly checking it--that nurture would influence personality. She does all this in a very personal, human fashion, with as much reference to the way traditional crime fiction works as to scientific research.--Martin O'Brien "Popular Science"
No Two Alike is another firecracker of a book by the woman who forced the world to rethink how we became who we are. Harris's scholarship and the persuasiveness of her arguments make this book mandatory reading for psychologists; her style, humor, and storytelling skills make it exhilarating reading for everyone.--Steven Pinker, author of Rationality and The Better Angels of Our Nature
As she did in The Nurture Assumption, independent scholar Harris makes waves again with a new theory of personality to explain why no two people are alike.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
New York Times
A display of scientific courage and imagination.— William Salatan
