Last week I boarded an evening train carrying commuters home to Winchester and beyond.
As we made our way southwest of London, two urges took hold of me and distracted me from my book. The first was to stick my biro into the bulging flesh of the man in the seat in front, who had gone to sleep and was snoring in an irregular series of shuddering, guttural snorts and wheezes. The second was for a gin and tonic and a bag of Quavers.
I acted on neither impulse. Instead I forced myself to attend to the book, I’ll Have What She’s Having: Mapping Social Behaviour, written by three academics who argue that almost all our decisions are based on copying.