Product Description

Barbara and Allan Pease travelled the world collating the dramatic findings of new research on the brain, investigating evolutionary biology, analysing psychologists research, studying social change and annoying the locals. The result is WHY MEN DON'T LISTEN AND WOMEN CAN'T READ MAPS, the sometimes shocking, always illuminating, frequently hilarious look at where the battle line is drawn between the sexes, why it was drawn and how to cross it. Revealed: Why men really can't do more than one thing at a time Why women make such a mess of parallel parking Why men should never lie to women Why women talk so much and men so little WHAT MEN AND WOMEN REALLY WANT A must-read for everyone - you will learn as much about yourself and how to improve your relationships, as you will about the opposite sex.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1970 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
"Let's look at the thoughts, attitudes, and emotions, as they're experienced, in their very different ways, by men and women". This is one of Allan Pease's chirpy gear-changes in this provocatively titled book. Then he begins to ruminate: men and women live in the same world, but they experience it as if they came from two different worlds. Boys like things, girls like people. Every boy wants to be in a gang, and wants a gun; every girl has her best friend, with whom she shares her secrets. Men want status and power, women want love. It's amazing, he concludes, that they can ever live together. Well, yes, and that living together is a pretty fraught business, though he doesn't seem keen to go too deeply into that: this psychology, with its frequent allusions to research and its jokey little dramatisations, is upbeat feelgood stuff, which is why it's made him such a fortune on three continents. "Listen to this!" he'll say, then on comes an Aussie squabble, the woman berating a husband whose grunts proclaim the fact that he's not listening. But to sell four million copies of a book about body language--in 33 different languages--means Pease and his wife Barbara must be getting something right. There are many scientifically-documented facts about the difference between the sexes, and Pease is selling them with a smile to an ever-growing public. You may be a contented member of that public, or you may find your hackles rising. It takes all sorts! Betty Tadman

About the Author
Allan Pease is the world's foremost expert on body language and relationships. His acclaimed book Body Language has sold over 4 million copies, while his top rated TV series on the same subject has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide. He travels the world lecturing on human communication. Barbara Pease is CEO of Pease International, which produces videos, training courses and seminars for businesses and governments worldwide. She is co-author of the bestselling book Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps, which has sold ten million copies around the world.

Customer Reviews

an absolute must for men and woman alike
Have you thrown plates in frustration, threatened divorce, murder or even leaving the planet? If so read one of the most perceptive books of the millenium. We all agree that men and women are different but now you can find the real reasons why men can't communicate as women do and why women do perfectly logical things that they understand but men find confusing and frustrating.

This book looks at the myths of communication and relationships and using the evidence of scientific research proves that the sexes are made biologically different.

It was once thought that babies came into the world like a blank book and it was experience, parental influence and nurturing that influenced how that person would develop but this book very graphically shows that we arrive, like a computer, pre- programmed with ideas,instincts and abilities that date back to cave man days when women were "nest defenders" and men were " lunch chasers". Thousands of years have past since these primative beginnings, life has moved on, men and womens lives have changed and many roles are now reversed, but the people have basically not moved on at all. Our expectations are so different and now more than at any other period in time the rate of divorce and relationship breakdown is at an all time high. This book will change how you see the opposite sex,show you how to handle the differences and be more tolerant and at peace with husbands and wives, sons and daughters. This book should be included in the National curriculum for years 12 - 17. I would guarantee that in 10 years the rate of divorce would begin to decrease.

Misleading mix of fact and fiction
An entertaining book, fine for a bathroom or train read. As mentioned by some reviewers already, this is a mixture of scientific studies on brain differences between men and women and the author's freely interspersed anecdotes, opinions and observations. A critical reader should be able to discern which is which.

I found a number of outright errors in the book. For example, "There are many more left-handed women." In fact, about 10% more men than women are left-handed. I also found innumerable sweeping statements like the following.
- "Until recently, women tended to be pregnant most of the time."
- "80% of all human societies have been [promiscuous] for most of human existence."
- "Until the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1950s, no-one noticed that women had emotional highs and lows."
- "Throughout human history, wars greatly diminished the numbers of men...so creating a harem for the returning males was an effective survival strategy"
- "Girls were a disappointment because the tribe invariably had an excess of females. This is the way it was for hundreds of thousands of years."

Unsubstantiated, unsubstantiatable, or just plain wrong. I mean, do we know how homo erectus greeted the birth of a girl? War may have diminished the numbers of men during specific time periods, but I think one could certainly make a case that childbearing had a much greater effect on female life expectancy than war did on male life expectancy. I haven't seen any anthropological references to modern hunter-gatherer groups with harems. What is "promiscuous"? Where are these societies? Who counted them?

I also found objectionable the running thread of "man the hunter" and the faulty logic that connected all male behaviour to this one supposed fact. Why, for example, do men need distance vision to hunt, but not peripheral vision to watch for predators? Men just want to have a "few pelvic thrusts" because they must always be on guard against attack. Primates living in the wild seem to have time for courting behaviour, even with watching for predators. And, wouldn't the women have to be on guard as well in this relentlessly hostile environment? Why aren't a few pelvic thrusts enough to satisfy them?

While it was sometimes amusing, and the brain research material was interesting, I found this book more irritating than enlightening.

Essential reading for men, women and children!!!
Forget Men are from Mars - this is what you really want to / need to know. It will not only help you understand your own and your partner's behaviour, but will give you endless hours of conversation and debate next time you're in the pub! It's not one of those boring, dull relationship books, and does not set out to prove one sex is better than the other - merely that both sexes are different, despite modern society and political correctness trying to suggest that we are more similar than we really are. In fact, according to the book, it will take evolution a million years to catch up with moden society!

Having endured a few jibes from my male friends for reading a 'bird's book', they have now seen their girlfriends reading it after my recommendation and are now reading the book themselves! I must have sold dozens of copies of this book just by talking about it with people!

It's easy to read, addictive and humourous. I guarantee that you won't have another conversation with a member of the opposite sex without thinking about this book!

Buy it and read it NOW!!!