Bonded by Evolution

Name: Bonded by Evolution
Price: 59.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9781529910551

What We’ve Got Wrong About Love and Connection

Paul Eastwick

$59.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Cornerstone Press
12 March 2026

Dating, relationships, living together & marriage; Popular psychology

A ground-breaking look at the science of love and connection - and an urgent corrective to some of our most fundamental assumptions about attraction

A ground-breaking look at the science of love and connection - and an urgent corrective to some of our most fundamental assumptions about attraction.

'In a world saturated with cynical advice about dating and gender, this book is a revelation . . . Bonded by Evolution is rigorous science written with warmth and moral clarity.' DANIEL H. PINK, author of Drive and The Power of Regret

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We're told that what men and women desire from relationship is different - he's looking for novelty, she's looking for commitment; he's concerned with looks, she's concerned with status.

We're told that we live in a hierarchy of romantic inequality - where some are 10s and others are 2s; where some people are marriage material and others are wired for promiscuity.

But this narrative is unscientific.

Such ideas have their roots in a branch of science called evolutionary psychology, and over the past few decades its ideas have permeated our culture and fuelled a narrative that inspires despair and anxiety - and, in its most extreme form, these ideas have been hijacked in the service of misogyny and violence.

But the truth about human attraction - and the way evolution plays out in our romantic lives - is much more interesting and optimistic.

Bonded by Evolution offers a radical new picture of the roots of enduring chemistry. Distilling evolutionary biology, anthropology and psychology and informed by his pathbreaking research and original experiments at the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory in California, psychology professor Paul Eastwick reveals how attraction is best depicted as a process of finding - and, often, creating - a compatible relationship.

Once we understand how ancestral humans sought compatible partners in small networks, we can build a clearer - and brighter - picture of how attraction, sex and relationships really work.

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'One of the most joyfully uplifting antidotes to 21st-century gloom.' THE TIMES

'Profound and pragmatic, suggesting an entirely different approach to the study - and pursuit - of love.' ERIC KLINENBERG, co-author of Modern Romance

'Rarely have scientific rigor and exuberant optimism been such congenial companions . . . Bonded by Evolution presents an optimistic new paradigm, one that provides clear guidance for romantic success.' ELI FINKEL, author of The All or Nothing Marriage

By: Paul Eastwick
Imprint: Cornerstone Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 164mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 558g
ISBN: 9781529910551
ISBN 10: 1529910552
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 12 March 2026
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Paul Eastwick is a Professor of Psychology at UC Davis, where he serves as the head of the Social-Personality Psychology program and the director of the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory. Thousands of undergraduate students have taken his course on attraction and close relationships, and he has published over one hundred scientific articles and chapters and won numerous early career awards. His research and writing has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, and Scientific American Mind. He hosts the popular podcast Love Factually with his long-time colleague, Eli Finkel, where they analyze rom-coms and romantic dramas from the perspective of relationship science. He earned his bachelor's degree at Cornell University and his PhD at Northwestern University.

Reviews for Bonded by Evolution: What We’ve Got Wrong About Love and Connection

Rarely have scientific rigor and exuberant optimism been such congenial companions. Drawing on the strongest scientific studies, Eastwick unearths a joyous truth: Happiness in love isn’t a gated country club where the 10s and 9s splash about together in skimpy swimsuits. A pro-tip for the lovelorn: Bonded By Evolution overturns the flawed conventional wisdom on love and compatibility. It presents an optimistic new paradigm, one that provides clear guidance for romantic success. * Eli Finkel, author of THE ALL OR NOTHING MARRIAGE * In this bold and compelling challenge to the popular science of romance, Paul Eastwick argues that human beings have not evolved to find partners who match their beauty and brilliance or maximize the potential of their offspring, but to seek compatibility. The implications of this thesis are both profound and pragmatic, suggesting an entirely different approach to the study – and pursuit – of love. * Eric Klinenberg, co-author of MODERN ROMANCE *