# Your favorite and most mind blowing/expanding books about sociology or psychology **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-and-most-mind-blowing-expanding-books-about-sociology-or-psychology/717175 "2015-04-09T02:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-and-most-mind-blowing-expanding-books-about-sociology-or-psychology/717175/1 "2015-04-09T02:03:13Z")
What books have people read either about individual psychology or books about the nature of the human race and/or society that they found really worth reading? Or books that just give you clues into important skills you need to navigate life? For me: The moral animal - Robert Wright Lucifer Principle - Howard Bloom Singluarity is near - Ray Kurzweil (about the fate of the human race, so arguably a sociology type book) Intro to communications textbook for interpersonal communications class. It really helped outline things I kindof intuitively knew but made them more concrete and easier to understand about how relationships and communications worked. Of all my college textbooks this is the only one I still have. Honorable mention to ‘the dictators handbook’ by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita about game theory and self interest and how it relates to politics. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-and-most-mind-blowing-expanding-books-about-sociology-or-psychology/717175/2 "2015-04-09T02:22:48Z")
I really enjoyed “Igcognito” by David Eagleman, which does a good job (IMHO) in showing how consciousness isn’t nearly as important as we think it is. “The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” by Wilkinson and Pickett was pretty eye-opening.