“Engaging, evocative. . . . [Bloom] is a supple, clear writer, and his parade of counterintuitive claims about pleasure is beguiling.”—NPR Why is an artistic masterpiece worth millions more than a convincing forgery? Pleasure works in mysterious ways, as Paul Bloom reveals in this investigation of what we desire and why. Drawing on a wealth of surprising studies, Bloom investigates pleasures noble and seamy, lofty and mundane, to reveal that our enjoyment of a given thing is determined not by what we can see and touch but by our beliefs about that thing’s history, origin, and deeper nature.
In other cases , you feel the pain of another personempathy is at full steam — but instead of compassion , it stirs a feeling that has no single word in English but a perfect one in German : schadenfreude . You enjoy the suffering of ...
We recognize angry faces more quickly: J. S. Morris et al., “A Differential Neural Response in the Human Amygdala to Fearful and Happy Facial Expressions,” Nature 383 (1996): 812–815. in fact, the brain will react: J. S. Morris et al.
Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes.
A revolutionary new study of the origins of love based on physiological research probes the human brain for insights into the origins of the sex drive, romance, and attraction, while also offering practical advice on how to control and ...
Based on Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal's wildly popular course "The Science of Willpower," The Willpower Instinct is the first book to explain the science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, ...
Bobbi McCaughey of Carlisle , Iowa , had completed thirty weeks of a high - risk pregnancy . Her doctors were astonished that she had made it this far . Defying scientific odds , the most improbable births in the history of the world ...
Provocative and illuminating, this is a radically new and thorough look at the desires that define us.
This book tells the emerging story of our often surprising ancestry - the extraordinary ancient migrations and mixtures of populations that have made us who we are.
Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society.
Where do these seemingly perverse appetites come from? Drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, The Sweet Spot shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure.