• Why do two strangers in an elevator stand as far apart as possible, avoiding eye contact and movement?

• Why are people, like monkeys, generous and altruistic in the presence of others, but selfish and malicious in the darkness of anonymity?

• Why do professors and senior business executives respond with terse or automated emails to their students and subordinates instead of the frequent and lengthy messages from them? Is this related to the rules that govern the exchange of favors between dominant and subordinate individuals in chimpanzees?

• Why are the most stable romantic bonds and marriages those in which it has been clarified who "calls the shots"?

• Why does nepotism prevail among humans, just as it does in other animal species? Is the nepotism of macaques the same as human nepotism? And how does mafia activity relate to this?

• Why do we tend to see ourselves as better, smarter, and more successful than others perceive us? And what is the connection between the display of teeth in rhesus macaques and the human smile?

Hundreds of similar questions are posed and answered in this book by the prominent primatologist Dario Maestripieri, who has dedicated his life to studying primate societies, trying to shed light on the strange habits that govern human social interactions.

For much of our behavior, he identifies parallels in the habits of our closest living relatives (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, macaques, and baboons) and finds similarities in unexpected social situations.

A closely physical ritual of bonding testing in baboons illuminates why humans kiss romantically. The confinement of two macaques in a small cage shows why people feel so uncomfortable with a stranger in the elevator. Primate nepotism explains why we promote our relatives and protégés in the military, academia, and public services.

The codes that govern our behavior are the result of millions of years of evolution before the emergence of modern humans. As Maestripieri clarifies, everything from how couples break up to how we climb the social ladder is determined by our "primate" roots. In your quest to know and understand human nature, this book will surprise, challenge, and delight you.