Rapaille Clotaire - Move UP: Why Some Cultures Advance While Others Dont

Dr Clotaire Rapaille I would like to dedicate this book to all the men and women who helped mankind move up. From the first human being who stood up on two feet to Neil Armstrongs first step on the moon. We are just at the beginning of the journey.

I want to thank the few who have inspired me throughout my life. As a young teenager, it was Voltaire, Descartes, Thomas Jefferson and Alexis de Tocqueville. Then, as I grew up, Levi Strauss, Henri Laborit, Ruth Benedict and Edward T. Hall.

But most of all, there is a baby girl who was born recently in one of the worst places in Africa. This book is for her. She is the future of this planet and I am sure that one day she will teach the new generation how to move up.

Dr Andrs Roemer To my immortal beloved ones: Alejandro, David, Valeria; Fanny, Oscar; Nadia;

and Pamela.

I wish you and future generations a world free of shackles and full of enlightenment In memory of Christopher Hitchens, 19492011.

Choices, movements, evolution, requirements for survival of the species. Why do some of us strive for more? How are , surroundings and education helping some societies move up more than others? These are some of the questions the authors engage by studying the paradigm between social and biological sciences. Move UP portrays the cultural and biological dimensions behind the desire of humans to ascend socially, intellectually or economically. Surprisingly being logical about our biology seems to be the key!

Mario J. Molina, President of the Mario Molina Center on Energy and Environment, and 1995 Nobel Prizewinner for chemistry

Move UP is a splendid book, totally engaging from start to finish. It showcases the human drive to strive for betterment within a complex matrix of our biology and culture. It challenges the reader to think about fresh ideas about ways to ascend, as well as highlighting the impediments that must be overcome to progress toward improvement. Move UP is by far the best book Ive read this year.

David M. Buss, author of Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind and The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating

Move UP provides a provocative and entertaining look at interactions between culture and biology that impact the progress of societies. The authors raise big questions and challenge the reader to think about them in novel ways.

Daniel L. Schacter, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of the The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers

Move UP considers a critical question in our globalized world what sorts of countries foster social mobility in their citizens? This is a question long pondered by social scientists, but Rapaille and Roemer bring a fresh perspective to the question, viewing the subject from the standpoints of evolutionary biology, anthropology and zoology. The result is a superb book provocative, smart, fun to read and very important. I recommend it highly.

Robert Sapolsky, neuroendocrinologist and author of Why Zebras Dont Get Ulcers and Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals

You have just been elected head of your country. You want to lead your people to new heights of happiness, prosperity, security, and freedom never enjoyed before. What should you do? The first thing you should do is read Move UP by Clotaire Rapaille and Andrs Roemer, and follow their data-driven recommendations for determining how best to achieve your goals using science, technology, and the wisdom of the greatest thinkers in history revealed in this remarkable book. Move UP is not utopian; it outlines a realistic plan for how more people in more places more of the time can lead more fulfilling and successful lives anywhere in the world.

Michael Shermer. founder and editor of Skeptic magazine, and author of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths and How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science

Andrs Roemer has been a leader in bringing important scientific ideas to public attention, as well as promoting human rights and effective democracy; Clotaire Rapaille has been a leader in the psychology of generating effective marketing strategies. Now, in Move UP, Drs Roemer and Rapaille combine their talents as scientists, communicators, motivators and activists with a little help from a uniquely diverse cast including Charles Darwin, Albert Camus, Sigmund Freud, Dr Seuss and Napoleon Bonaparte to show how individuals as well as societies can move: which way? UP, of course! If you value survival, sex, security and success (and who doesnt?) then get ready for a potentially life-altering trip!

David P. Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington and author of Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature

Rapaille and Roemer fix their gazes on a question of great importance and intimidating complexity: how can we prosper? With inviting style, they bring to bear an array of ideas and an abundance of evidence, looking closely at the issue from a host of different vantage points. Ranging widely, the authors will delight, provoke, and very possibly inspire readers who want to know how nations can move UP.

Robert Kurzban, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and editor-in-chief of Evolution and Human Behavior

I think this book is terrific In Move UP, Clotaire Rapaille and Andrs Roemer have written a book that is engaging, stimulating, and challenges us to think in new ways. Though it is theoretically broad and ambitious, it is full of practical suggestions that can make life better. It will change the way you look at almost everything.

Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less and Practical Wisdom

What are the parallels between brains and cultures? Running the gamut from stimulating to provocative, heady to poignant, this book gives you plenty to think about for moving lives and societies in the only useful direction.

David Eagleman, neuroscientist and author of Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives and Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

I love the ideas put forth by my good friends, Roemer and Rapaille! The Culture Code of your home country is absolutely critical for a successful future Culture matters, a lot! The good news is we can change, one by one, we can change our mindset. Its up to us. You must decide to move UP, and maybe away from your home. Read the book and find out why and how.

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, founder of Grupo Salinas

When does a nations culture hold them back, and when does it fuel their progress? It is extremely hard to answer this question comprehensively enough to help guide policy change whether this be economic policy, social policy or even foreign policy. Roemer and Rapaille offer a cogent and coherent network of guidelines, describing not only what has worked and not worked in the past but also a set of persuasive arguments and theories as to why. Those who would tend to challenge these guidelines on the basis that they are too Western, or in some other way parochial, would do well to ask themselves how long other paradigms need to fail before they should be abandoned.