Showing results by author "Paul Bloom" in All Categories

A controversial call to arms, Against Empathy argues that the natural impulse to share the feelings of others can lead to immoral choices in both public policy and in our intimate relationships with friends and family. Most people, including many policy makers, activists, scientists, and...

A compelling and accessible new perspective on the modern science of psychology, based on one of Yale’s most popular courses of all time How does the brain—a three-pound wrinkly mass—give rise to intelligence and conscious experience? Was Freud right that we are all plagued by forbidden...

Nothing is more familiar and yet less understood than the human mind. It defines the experience of being human, and yet its workings contain some of the deepest mysteries ever encountered. Written by one of the world's greatest teachers of psychology, The Human Mind provides a masterful and riveting guide to all that we have learned since modern science began probing those mysteries.

It seems obvious that pleasure leads to happiness - and pain does the opposite. And yet we are irresistibly drawn to a host of experiences that truly hurt, from the exhilarating fear of horror movies or extreme sport, to the wrenching sadness of a song or novel, to the gruelling challenges of exercise, work, creativity and having a family. In The Sweet Spot, pre-eminent psychologist Paul Bloom explores the pleasures of suffering and explains why the activities that provide most satisfaction are often the ones that involve greatest sacrifice. 

From the author of Against Empathy comes a different kind of happiness book, one that shows us how suffering is an essential source of both pleasure and meaning in our lives. Why do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We...

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is...

De gedachte aan seks met een maagd is zeer opwindend voor veel mannen. We kiezen ervoor om gemiddeld vier uur per dag voor de televisie te zitten. Onze kinderen spelen met denkbeeldige vrienden. We gaan langzamer rijden om gruwelijke ongelukken beter te bekijken en gaan naar films die ons aan het huilen maken. De manieren waarop we ‘genieten’ zijn even bizar als uiteenlopend.

Analizând descoperirile revoluționare ale psihologiei, Punctul ideal ne arată cum tipul potrivit de suferință pregătește terenul pentru împlinire. Nu suntem în mod natural hedoniști. Deși de multe ori asociem o viață bună cu plăcerea și cu lipsa eșecului, efortul, lupta și greutățile, precum și frica sau tristețea, ne pot duce, în contextele potrivite, la o viață cu sens, la satisfacții morale și la bucuria cunoașterii. Durerea ne distrage de la spaime, poate să servească unor scopuri sociale, să arate cât de puternici suntem sau, dimpotrivă, funcționează pe post de strigăt de ajutor.