Analysis Of Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Connect By Matthew Lieberman

In Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, Matthew Lieberman expounds on his research in social neuroscience. He reveals how essential our need to interact and connect with others around us is and the role that lack of social interaction plays in our everyday lives. He goes on to explain that this need to be social is as important, if not more, as our physiological needs, such as: food, water, and shelter. Lieberman wants to prove the vital role social interaction takes in our life and uses Social to discuss ways to enhance society and make the workplace and classrooms more productive, all by us becoming socially connected. The data Lieberman presents seems to ignore the aspect of introverts and how, or if, his data holds up against their personality types.
He says that being “socially connected will be a lifelong need, like food and warmth” (5). In Social, Lieberman tries to defend his theory that human beings neurologically have a predisposition to be “social” and that this has shaped the evolution of the species toward becoming more and more socially connected. This theory is fine, except it doesn’t seem to cover the personality of introverts. Introverted people are drained by social encounters and energized by solitary pursuits. They are often falsely labeled as being shy or of having a social phobia, but in fact they socialize easily, but prefer not to. Introverts are even more empathetic and interpersonally connected than most outgoing people. Matthew Lieberman presents ways to enhance society solely by us becoming socially connected through interaction, but this data did not discuss the minds of