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

Details:

Author: Paul Bloom
Language: English
Pages: 280
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Size:

Weight: 1.3 Pounds
Length: 9.5 Inches
Width: 6.5 Inches
Height: 1.3 Inches

Industry Reviews:

"Bloom...has written a book that is different from the slew already out there on the general subject of happiness. No advice here about how to become happier by organizing your closets; Bloom is after something deeper than the mere stuff of feeling good. He analyzes how our minds have evolved certain cognitive tricks that help us negotiate the physical and social world--and how those tricks lead us to derive pleasure in some rather unexpected places."
(06/27/2010) "[E]ngaging, evocative....Bloom...is a supple, clear writer, and his parade of counterintuitive claims about pleasure is beguiling, if a bit indebted to the Gladwellianism of contemporary nonfiction. He quotes studies that yield even more startling results in various contexts."
(07/02/2010)

Publisher Notes:

Some teenage girls enjoy cutting themselves with razors. The average American spends more than four hours a day watching television. The thought of sex with a virgin is intensely arousing to many men. Abstract art can sell for millions of dollars. Young children enjoy playing with imaginary friends and can be comforted by security blankets. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents, and go to movies that make them cry.In this fascinating and witty account, Paul Bloom examines the science behind these curious desires, attractions, and tastes, covering everything from the animal instincts of sex and food to the uniquely human taste for art, music, and stories. Drawing on insights from child development, philosophy, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, How Pleasure Works shows how certain universal habits of the human mind explain what we like and why we like it.

Book Details Summary:

The title of this book is How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like and it was written by Paul Bloom . This edition of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like is in a Hardcover format. This books publish date is June 2010 and it has a suggested retail price of $26.95. There are 280 pages in the book and it was published by W W Norton & Co Inc. The 10 digit ISBN is 0393066320 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9780393066326.