Judith Rich Harris - No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality

Judith Rich Harris calls No Two Alike a scientific detective story. The mystery is why peopleeven identical twins who grow up in the same home with the same genesend up with different personalities. The detective is Harris herself,who takes on the academic establishment armed only with a sharp mind and an Internet connection. Harris the author scrupulously follows clues; Harris the protagonist drives the story forward through force of character.

William Saletan, New York Times Book Review

With neither a doctorate nor a university behind her, Harris more than compensates with intelligence, dogged research, lively writing, a love of mystery, and droll humor. Harris makes behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology enjoyable and accessible to general readers as well as scholars. Essential for general and academic libraries.

E. James Lieberman, Library Journal , starred review

Harriss writing is highly entertaining, which will help readers stick with her through the elaboration of a fairly complex theory.

Publishers Weekly

Harris delivers an answer (and, yes, its sure to be controversial), but its the quest itself that will prove most fascinating for general readers, who will marvel at the step-by-step accumulation of facts, as the author marshals her argument by adeptly juggling a wide array of tools, from new theories of evolutionary psychology to behavioral genetics and linguistics.

David Pitt, Booklist

There are many books about human nature, but very few on the important question of why humans differ from one another. Judy Harriss book is terrifically well written and interesting.

Robert Plomin, author of Nature and Nurture: An Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics

As a parent, as a social psychologist, and as a human being, I was enlightened and enthralled. Harris is an extraordinary thinker and writer: wise, witty, learned, scientifically rigorous, and absolutely fearless. Contemporary psychology has no sharper criticand no better friend.

Joshua Aronson, editor of Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological Factors on Education

Readers interested in evolutionary psychology and human development will find a lot to ponder here.

Science News

Harriss books are well worth reading for many reasons. With its roots in old-fashioned curiosity and wide learning, her exposition is a tour de force of arresting anecdotes, lively reportage, and lucid analysis.

Amy L. Wax, Policy Review

When this book arrived, I pretty much sat down and read it from cover to coverhardly my typical reaction to a nonfiction book. No Two Alike is a deeply impressive accomplishment.

Paul Bloom, author of Descartes Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human

There are lots and lots of goodies, including fascinating studies of memory and learning and observations of chimpanzees, chickens, paper wasps and ants. Harris shows why relationship and socialisation skills dont necessarily go together; why bullies dont have low self-esteem, as normally proposed; why height and earnings are related; and so on. Her work is enjoyably well worth reading and, in this reviewer at least, stimulated much thought.

Denise Winn, Human Givens Journal

Harris is not a professional scientist and isnt afraid of ranging widely across disciplines in search of an answer. She writes with breezy good humour too, as she attempts to explain variations in personality that cant be attributed to variations in genes.

Scotland on Sunday

Why are we the way we are? Why do identical twins, raised in the same house by the same parents, turn out to have such different personalities? For years, psychologists and other professionals thought they had the answers, but this grandmotherly, iconoclastic outsider may force us to revise our thinking about these basic questions. Mrs. Harris is an amazing woman. As an independent scholar, she took a broader view of the issue than was possible for many of the certified experts. Perhaps that is why she has been able to see the forest, as well as the trees.

Peter Pettus, New York Sun

Harris makes waves again with a new theory of personality to explain why no two people are alike. Expect some lively rebuttals.

Kirkus Reviews

I enjoyed reading this book; Harris has a conversational and engaging style that nonetheless manages to convey quite a bit of information clearly.The evidence Harris produces to support [her theory of personality] is not only persuasive but fascinating to read.

Mary Hrovat, Thinking Meat (thinkingmeat.com)

Judith Harris has produced a top-notch social science text. The book takes a fresh look at research from behavioral genetics, developmental psychology, sociology, personality, and social psychology to explain, in new ways, the non-genetic causes of individual human differences. A well-researched and thought-provoking analysis of fundamental issues in psychology.

Eric Lang, Science Books & Films

The chapters on gene-environment interaction and birth order differences within families contain some fascinating detective work. I very much enjoyed reading this book.

Dorret Boomsma, Nature Genetics

Marshaling an impressive range of evidencesocial psychology, anthropology, genetics, neuroscience, and, crucially, evolutionary biologyHarris demolishes entrenched orthodoxies and opens new avenues. This book will intrigue, amuse, and greatly enlighten you, whatever your personality.

Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today

Why are identical twins reared together so different when they share all of their genes and all of the environment? Why were the Iranian conjoined twins Laleh and Ladan so different when their genes and environments seemed all but identical? No Two Alike , this wonderful new book by Judith Rich Harris, takes on this most difficult of questions. And Harris, a devotee of mystery writing, is a great storyteller. This is a very important book.

John Mullen, Metapsychology

A truly engaging, moderately challenging take on what makes people tick. [Harris is] a plucky, ridiculously informed writer who brings potentially droll scientific studies to life, and synthesizes and picks holes in the most influential psychology studies relating to personality in the past several decades. The result is a new theory that covers all bases and explains why we are the way we are.

Karla Starr, Willamette Week

Also by Judith Rich Harris

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do