'Given the choice of living in a world without praise or one with too much, I would unhesitatingly choose the latter. What a joyless world a world without praise - or flattery - would be.'
Okay, who was the first flatterer? If you guessed Satan, you'd be close, but according to this book, flattery began with chimpanzees, who groom each other all day long. In fact, flattery is an adaptive behaviour that has helped us survive since our caveman days. It's in our genes.
Our flattery is simply strategic praise, oiling the social machinery of everyday life, and to illustrate its myriad forms, Richard Stengel takes us on a witty idiosyncratic tour, from chimps to the God of the Old Testament and the love-sick poets of the Middle Ages. These days, however, flattery is just a harmless deception, a victimless crime that often ends up making both the giver and the receiver feel a little better. In short, flattery works.
