Why Our Brains Are Wired To Connect, By Matthew D. Lieberman

In the nonfiction book Social:Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman, the author discusses research with neuroscience relating to how strongly humans yearn to connect with one another. The book includes studies about very relevant topics such as how praise and positive feedback heavily impact one’s feelings and opinions of themselves. The author also relates evidence in the book to underlying feelings that human beings have such as selfishness and the need to please others. By using specific examples and experiences that are both personal and research based, he is able to illustrate how people see themselves personally, others around them, and how they are able to make a connection between the two. Lieberman is a professor

He refers to something called the default network, essentially an area of the brain that lights up with the absence of other tasks. In other words, “tasks induce this network to turn off (Lieberman 17).” People are constantly thinking about social networks through this, although unaware of it. From the moment babies are born, they are wired to think socially because they are in constant need of a caregiver to provide nourishment, social interaction, or shelter. The default network is a large part of the book as it proves that social connection is heavily emphasized in the brain. This relates back to social pain, another large emphasis in the book. Lieberman points out how although many see this pain as something that isn’t real, it actually has been proven to show the same reaction in the brain as psychical pain. This connection between the two different types of pain “ensures that we will spend our entire lives motivated by social connection (Lieberman 25).” The author talks about how humans use facial cues and other body language to essentially read one another's minds because of the fact that “when we see others, we want to know what they are thinking about and how they are thinking about it (Lieberman 106).” Humans yearn to understand each