People Will Talk: The Surprising Science of Reputation - Hardcover

by John Whitfield (Author)

How to get a good reputation--deserved or not --and why we care what other people think

Why does a fish only bite another fish if no one else is watching? Why do people overshare online? Why do some people meet trivial insults with extreme violence? Why do so many gods have multiple eyes? In People Will Talk, science writer John Whitfield shows how reputation helps answer all of these questions, and more. What is the secret to getting get a good reputation? Unfortunately, there's more to reputation than being a good person or being good at what you do. Your reputation belongs to other people, and it's created by what they say about you behind your back. You have a good reputation only if you have a strong social network--a large and close-knit network of friends, family, and allies--to spread good news about you and shout down ugly rumors. If you've ever wondered why we care about the lives of celebrities, why young men publicly upload to the Internet pictures of themselves engaged in drunken or dangerous antics, how to make the "honor system" a little more widely honored, how to keep politicians honest, or what keeps gossip going, reputation will give you a clue.

• Almost from the moment we are born, we are trying to work out whom we can trust and trying to make others think the best of us.
• We carry on doing so throughout life, even when we don't realize it, every time we meet another person in business, friendship, or romance; every time we read celebrity gossip; and every time we tweak our Facebook profiles.
• Whether you're buying a car or selling one, looking for a job or hiring, asking someone out on a date or deciding whether to accept the invitation, reputation matters.

Read People Will Talk and discover how to polish your own reputation, understand what you hear about others, and make the most of both.

Front Jacket

"In a global world made smaller only by social interaction andnetworking, no company or individual can afford to ignore theirreputation. People Will Talk merges the science and art of this increasingly complex and critical field. Properly applied, Whitfield provides a clear prescription for building trust, credibility, and integrity."--Jeffrey M. StibelChairman and CEO, Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. and author of Wired for Thought

"In People Will Talk, John Whitfield pulls off a remarkablefeat of balancing nature and nurture, animal biology and humanbehavior to explore the universal goal of creating--and maintaining--an admirable reputation. The result is a book both wonderfully readable and pragmatically useful, an artful illumination of the ways that we can manage both our public and private personas to best effect."--Deborah Blumauthor of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and theBirth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

praise for In the Beat of a Heart

A Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year

"Vividly readable. Whitfield's lively account focuses on thepower of a beguilingly simple idea about how the living worldmight work, and on the remarkable men who conceived it."--Nature

"Balanced yet provocative, witty but never flippant, clearwithout being simplistic, and far- but never over-reaching."--Philip Ball author of Critical Mass and The Music Instinct

Back Jacket

Why do people overshare online?

Why does a fish bite anotherfish only if no one else is watching?

Why do some people meet trivialinsults with extreme violence?

Why do so many godshave multiple eyes?

In People Will Talk, science writer John Whitfield shows how the idea of reputation helps answer all of these questions and more.

Almost from the moment we are born, we are trying to work out whom we can trust and trying to make others think the best of us. We carry on doing so throughout life, even when we don't realize it, every time we meet another person in business, friendship, or romance; every time we read celebrity gossip; and every time we tweak our Facebook profiles. Reputation has left its mark on our bodies, brains, and even, you might say, souls. Whether you're buying a car or selling one, looking for a job or hiring, asking someone out on a date or deciding whether to accept the invitation, reputation matters.

What is the secret to getting a good reputation? Unfortunately, there's more to reputation than being a good person or being good at what you do. Your reputation belongs to other people, and it's created by what they say about you behind your back. So you have a good reputation only if you have a strong social network--a large and close-knit network of friends, family, and allies--to spread good news about you and shout down ugly rumors.

Besides being a crucial component of individual success, whether a society flourishes or rots depends on how it uses reputation. Whether they're in Machiavelli's Italy, a California college sorority, New York's drug culture, or the online world of The Sims, people's concerns for their reputation can either push them toward altruism and cooperation or make them turn to deceit and brutality.

If you've ever wondered why we care about the lives of celebrities, why young men publicize their drunken or dangerous antics on the Internet, how to make the "honor system" a little more widely honored, how to keep politicians honest, or what keeps gossip going, reputation will give you a clue.

Read People Will Talk and discover how to polish your own reputation and understand what you hear about others and make the most of both.

Author Biography

JOHN WHITFIELD, a former Nature staff writer, has written for Science, Discover, New Scientist, Seed, Scientific American, the London Review of Books, the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, the Independent on Sunday, and?BBC Wildlife magazine. He?has a PhD in?evolutionary biology from the University of Cambridge.