Why People Are Different: A Scientific Look at Human Individuality

All people are different from one another. This fact seems so obvious that we rarely think about why it is so. Why is someone an owl and someone else a lark, why does one person love sweets while another prefers bitter, some like men while others like women, and some feel constrained by traditional gender categories. Neurobiologist David Linden assessed the degree of human diversity by studying profiles on a dating website. It turns out that people are particularly eager to describe their characteristics there - from hair color to food and sexual preferences, from household habits to allergies. "Why People Are Different" is an attempt to describe all facets of our uniqueness in one book. Linden discusses genetic variability and environmental influences from the womb to adulthood, learning and individual experience, immunity, and chemical receptors, which is why there really are no comrades when it comes to taste and color. And although you have never doubted your own uniqueness, you will still be fascinated to learn how complex and unpredictable the path has been that you had to take for it.