Plays Well With Others

From the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Barking Up the Wrong Tree comes a cure-all for our increasing emotional distance and loneliness—a smart, surprising, and thoroughly entertaining guide to help build better friendships, reignite love, and get closer to others, whether you’re an extrovert or introvert, socially adept or socially anxious.

Can you judge a book by its cover?

Is a friend in need truly a friend indeed?

Does love conquer all?

Is no man an island?

In Plays Well with Others, Eric Barker dives into these age-old maxims drawing on science to reveal the truth beyond the conventional wisdom about human relationships. Combining his compelling storytelling and humor, Barker explains what hostage negotiation techniques and marital arguments have in common, how an expert con-man lied his way into a twenty-year professional soccer career, and why those holding views diametrically opposed to our own actually have the potential to become our closest, most trusted friends.

Inside you will learn:

The two things essential to making friends – and what Dale Carnegie got wrong.

What creates love, reignites love, and sustains love. (There’s no Build-A-Bear store for a happy marriage but this is close.)

The ethical and effective way to get your partner to change.

How social media can actually improve relationships.

The antidote to loneliness and why what we usually hear doesn’t work.