“We're a social species, and we want to get along with the people we like and who are like us. That's just good adaptive behaviour. We're more likely to accept something if we hear it from a friend, whereas we're sceptical of people who are not like us - which is what leads to racism, nationalism, sexism and all forms of bigotry.”

American-Canadian cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist

Daniel Levitin is an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, writer, musician, and record producer. He is known for his work on music and the mind, and for writing widely read books about how people think, hear, and respond to sound. He has written four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies. His work brings together psychology, neuroscience, and music, and often explores how the brain processes sound and why music matters to human life.