I was at the library, opened this to a random page, and found an aspect of statistics I never knew before.

p. 145 "When two bell curves overlap, even a small difference between the average scores of the groups will produce big differences at the extremes."

And his explanation of that makes sense to me. And I have friends who are totally illogical about which animals get which roles, succumbing to the cuteness of squirrels for example. And Temple Grandin recommended it. So, yeah, I checked it out. ....

And now that I'm done reading it, I'm glad. It's not a lecture with an agenda, it's the author sharing stories about how he did the research and about the subjects (animal & human) and his thoughts on the results. It's good science, but it reads as easily as popular fiction. Not one graph or equation. Notes & bibliography for the interested & skeptical, though.

Here's a measure of how interesting I thought it was. I restrained myself and still managed to put seven book darts in it.

Here's one quote I marked to share: "Gail Melson, a developmental psychologist... found no sex differences in how kids play with or nurture their pets.... [she] believes that for boys, pets are often the only vehicles that give them experience in caring for another living being."

A chapter that focuses on vegetarians explains that not all people's bodies are suited to be completely meatless. Re' a woman in her 40s who, with her husband, built their home from the beginning, from cutting timber, "Staci wasn't always so fit. In her early thirties, Staci's health started going downhill. After twelve years of vegetarianism, she began to suffer from anemia and chronic fatigue syndrome, and she experienced stomach pains for two hours after every meal. 'I was completely debilitated,' she tells me. 'Then I changed the way I ate.'
'Tell me about your diet now. What did you have for breakfast today?' I ask.
'A half-pint of raw beef liver,' she says."

And I liked the test and result notes at www.outofservice.com/bigfive

I'm a O65-C64-E3-A17-N87 Big Five!!