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The Intimate Animal
  • Published: 4 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9780241988305
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $37.00

The Intimate Animal

The Science of Love, Fidelity and Connection

Formats & editions
Paperback
4 Mar 2027
Hardback
5 May 2026
EBook
6 Feb 2025
Audiobook
6 Feb 2025
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A scientific exploration of love, sex and fidelity and why we choose the partners that we do.

An evolutionary exploration of how and why we fall in and out of love.

Dr. Justin Garcia is a world-leading expert on the science of love and sex. In his first ever book, he reveals our intimacy instincts. He explores how the tensions between our competing evolved desires for love and sex explain the heartache and heartbreak of our romantic and sexual lives.

In this book, Dr Garcia uses compelling case studies, revealing his cutting-edge findings and offering practical tips on love and attraction - two biological systems which are often in painful conflict. He explains how these tensions play out in today's digital age in complex ways, and that we are now in a global intimacy crisis because sex can be digitized but love cannot.

The Intimate Animal offers us the first evolutionary understanding of the entire life course of our intimate relationships - how we date, mate, break, and remake our love lives.
  • Published: 4 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9780241988305
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $37.00
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About the author

Justin Garcia

Dr. Justin R. Garcia is an evolutionary biologist and sex researcher. He is Executive Director & Senior Scientist at the Kinsey Institute. He is also the Scientific Advisor to Match Group and Match.com, where he provides expertise to the company’s annual Singles in America study. His research has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TIME, Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair.
JG

Praise for The Intimate Animal

Brilliant. A must read for anyone curious about the deeper forces behind love, sex, and connection.

Dr Emily Morse, author of Smart Sex

Evolutionary biologist Justin Garcia’s groundbreaking studies reveal the latest changes in human dating and mating as well as some of our most ancient needs and desires.

Scott Barry Kaufman, author of Rise Above and host of The Psychology Podcast

Compassionate, data-rich, and radically hopeful. This book is a revelation. Garcia cuts through noise and shame to map how we bond, break, and begin again.

Lara Love Hardin, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Lives of Mama Love

Even when connection, love and desire feel elusive, Garcia reminds us that it's exactly what we're wired for

Esther Perel, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Mating in Captivity

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK! So exciting to see a research-based book that gets to the real fundamentals in understanding what it means to be human. This book is a real page turner, so rare in non-fiction.

John Gottman, author of Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work

A daring exploration of how our hunger for closeness shapes every stage of intimacy—and why learning to nurture that hunger may be the most important work we ever do.

Iris Krasnow, bestselling author of Surrendering to Marriage

A must read for anyone interested in the topic of sex, love and human relationships.

Kate Moyle, Psychosexual Therapist and author of The Science Of Sex

Fascinating and useful [...] peppered with practical advice on how to invest in our relationships, and why that is worth doing

The Telegraph Magazine

A thoughtful and well-researched treatise

The Sunday Times