How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like

Bloom, Paul

ISBN 10: 0393340007 / ISBN 13: 9780393340006

Published by W.W. Norton, New York, 2010

About this Item

8vo, 280 pp.

Seller Inventory # 072971

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
• Publisher: W.W. Norton, New York
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393340007
• ISBN 13: 9780393340006
• Binding: softcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Fine copy
• Seller catalogs:
  • Psychology

About this title

Synopsis

"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.

About the Author

Paul Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale University. He is the author of Descartes’ Baby and How Pleasure Works. He has contributed to The Atlantic, the New York Times, Science, and Nature. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.