Where Are Your Manners?
Animal behaviorist Jennifer Verdolin just reviewed "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck" on Psychology Today. (The book is only about $10 at Amazon and B&N.)

An excerpt from Verdolin's review:

Speaking of pictures, Alkon gives us a glimpse into just how we can expose (and thus deter) the egregiously rude among us with what she calls "webslapping": posting photos or "PooTube" videos in the neighborhood of those leaving dog droppings on others' lawns.

Alkon explains that we need to see rudeness as a form of theft to be able to rise up and speak out to the rude. One example of this is what Alkon explains is the theft of our peace of mind and our attention by the "cellboors" of the world who cram their dull conversations into our brains whether we want to hear them or not.

Other issues Alkon brings up and solves are the theft of our time (and also our peace of mind) by drivers who jam up store parking lot thruways waiting for the closest possible parking spot, the theft of our sleep by apartment residents playing booming music in the wee hours, and the theft of our leg room by storage bin hogs on airplanes. In each situation, Alkon explains what our impulsive reactions to these situations are likely to be and then, turning to behavioral science research, explains what would actually be productive.

All in all, Alkon delivers a bitingly funny and easy-to-relate approach, complete with the occasional funny photo. The ultimate goal of Alkon's book is to make the world a better place for all of us. In her last chapter, titled "Trickle-Down Humanity," she notes, "All it takes to get in the habit of treating people as co-human is making it a habit--daily, or better yet, throughout the day." She explains why this has such a powerful effect on people--especially strangers--we do kind acts for: "We feel a deep need to matter."

Verdolin and I also just did a radio show together on her book and mine:

Dr. Jennifer Verdolin and Amy Alkon on manners and sexual politics in humans and animals.

About Jennifer, who -- I love this -- happens to be a "lemur personality expert":

Dr. Jennifer L. Verdolin is the woman who runs with the lemurs, and she has a few things to say about human relationships as seen through the lens of animal ones. (Sometimes, sadly, the animals seem more mature than we do.) Her new book: Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tell Us About Human Relationships.