How Pleasure Works
Why we like what we like
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- 9,49 €
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- 9,49 €
Publisher Description
Pleasure is one of the most fascinating aspects of being human. But what is it?
Exploring child development, philosophy, neuroscience and behavioural economics, Paul Bloom uncovers how universal habits explain what we like and why we like it.
The average Briton spends over a day a week watching television. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents and go to sentimental movies that make them cry. Some men pay good money to be spanked by prostitutes.
In this revealing and witty account, Paul Bloom examines the science behind these curious desires, attractions and tastes, exploring one of the most fascinating and fundamental engines of human behaviour.
‘How Pleasure Works has one of the best discussions I've read of why art is pleasurable, why it matters to us, and why it moves us so’ Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bloom (Descartes Baby), a psychology professor at Yale, explores pleasure from evolutionary and social perspectives, distancing himself from the subject s common association with the senses. By examining studies and anecdotes of pleasure-inducing activities like eating, art, sex, and shopping, Bloom posits that pleasure takes us closer to the essence of a thing, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral. He argues that humans seem to be hard-wired to give, as well as receive, pleasure. A study using mislabeled, cheap bottles of wine, wherein Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only twelve said this of the cheap label, demonstrates the complicated sociological components behind what we find pleasurable. Bloom even briefly examines positive reactions to very hot food and other controlled doses of pain. And a study where rhesus monkeys chose pictures of female hindquarters and high-status monkeys over fruit juice allows the author to surmise that Two major vices pornography and celebrity worship are not exclusively human.
