Primate Myth: Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature

Challenging everything we thought we knew, this book takes a revolutionary look at how humans are far less like other primates than we’ve been led to believe—and uncovers what truly sets us apart.

Humans are primates, much like chimps—or so we’ve been continually told. Yet recent discoveries show that our species has a different brain design, function, and chemistry; different eating, sleeping, mating, and rearing patterns; a different metabolism; and a different physiology than apes. Nor is our behavior much like theirs, and we don’t even have the feet made for climbing trees that define the primate order.

Could it be that conceiving of ourselves as primates isn’t helping us understand what it is to be human? By examining the latest research in neuroscience and genetics, we are propelled toward a radically different conception of our nature. In this way, we can begin to grasp the distinctively human dimensions of war, murder, suicide, and homosexuality, along with our fascinations with subjects like sports, politics, and fashion. Here is the path by which to understand our species’ essential problems and uncover the answers for how we should live our lives.

Jonathan Leaf is a playwright and novelist. He has written for the Daily Beast, Commentary, National Review, The New Criterion, Modern Age, Tablet, the New York Post, New York Daily News, Spectator (USA), Law & Liberty, City Journal, The Weekly Standard, and many other publications.

In 2018, The Wall Street Journal called his play Pushkin a “triumph,” naming it one of the year’s four best. Kirkus Reviews has called his novel City of Angles “literary entertainment at its best.” Now Leaf turns his attention to the subject that his parents devoted their lives to and with which he has had a lifelong fascination: what neuroscience is revealing about human nature.