Book Review: Applied Evolutionary Psychology at its Best

Abstract

Reviews the book, I see rude people: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society by Amy Alkon (2010). I See Rude People is a seamless mixture of two types of stories. On the one hand, the book details her hilarious personal take on the rude, obnoxious, inconsiderate people who ruin the day for her and everyone else (people who have loud private conversations on cell phones in public places; parents who let their children run wild and cause nuisance to everyone around; telemarketers who call at all hours; liberal and progressive cyberbullies) and how she deals with such rude people in her everyday life. Then weaved with them are real-life detective stories in which Alkon tracks down individual criminals who victimized her (a thief who stole her car; a toothless black woman who stole her money via identity theft; an elderly driver who hit and damaged her car in a supermarket parking lot). I See Rude People is the funniest book I've read since Dave Barry's Big Trouble, which coincidentally is also endorsed by Elmore Leonard. Alkon is simply hilarious beyond words. The book also serves a very important purpose of reaching civilian readers who would never read Evolutionary Psychology and scientific papers and books on evolutionary psychology (as Alkon has) and spreading the important lessons of evolutionary psychology that apply to their everyday life. Alkon is a fantastic ambassador for our discipline. I strongly recommend I See Rude People to everyone, evolutionary psychologist or otherwise. ({PsycINFO} Database Record (c) 2016 {APA}, all rights reserved)