Paul Bloom - Department of Psychology, Yale University

Paul Bloom

homepage:	http://www.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Bloom.html
search externally:	Google Scholar, Springer, CiteSeer, Microsoft Academic Search, Scirus , DBlife

Description

Research Interests

I am interested in the development and nature of our common-sense understanding of ourselves and other people. My current research explores the following areas:

Bodies and souls. There is considerable evidence that adults are natural dualists--we see the world as Descartes did, as containing physical things (or bodies) and social entities (or souls). I am interested in how this common-sense dualism emerges in development, and the implications that it has for domains such as morality and religion.

Art and fiction. There are some hard questions that arise when we consider the human capacity to make sense of artwork and fiction. What distinguishes art from everything else? Why do adults consider forgeries to be inferior to the real thing (even if they are perfect duplicates) and when in development does this intuition emerge? And how do we think about the relationship between different fictional worlds, such as the fictional world of Harry Potter and the (also fictional, but very different) world of Batman and Robin?

Moral Reasoning. My students and I are becoming interested in certain fundamental questions within moral psychology. Why do we find certain actions to be disgusting (such as certain sex acts), and why does this emotional reaction lead to moral condemnation? What are children's intuitions about fair and unfair distribution of resources? When does moral hypocrisy emerge? One goal of this research is to understand the developing interplay between deliberative reasoning and the moral emotions.

Most of these projects are student-initiated, and all of the work in my laboratory is strongly interdisciplinary, bringing in theory and research from areas such as cognitive, social, and developmental psychology, evolutionary theory, linguistics, theology, and philosophy.

Sample Publications

Birch, S. & Bloom, P. (in press) The curse of knowledge in reasoning about false beliefs. Psychological Science.

Preissler, M. A. & Bloom, P. (in press) Two-year-olds appreciate the dual nature of pictures. Psychological Science.

Bloom, P. (Dec. 2005). Is God an accident? Atlantic Monthly.

Bloom, P. (2004). Descartes' Baby: How the science of child development explains what makes us human. New York: Basic Books.

Bloom, P. (2000). How children learn the meanings of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Lectures:

35492 views, 29:36	lecture Lecture 1 - Introduction to Psychology as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 35492 views	21923 views, 53:18	lecture Lecture 2 - Foundations: This Is Your Brain as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 21923 views
19001 views, 52:47	lecture Lecture 14 - What Motivates Us: Sex as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 19001 views	15916 views, 56:30	lecture Lecture 6 - How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth and the Hands as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 15916 views
	event YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 66209 views	12437 views, 56:30	lecture Lecture 3 - Foundations: Freud as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 12437 views
11280 views, 48:57	lecture Lecture 5 - What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 11280 views	10224 views, 1:05:49	lecture Lecture 13 - Why Are People Different?: Differences as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 10224 views
9704 views, 1:09:32	lecture Lecture 9 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey) as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 9704 views	8858 views, 58:46	lecture Lecture 4 - Foundations: Skinner as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 8858 views
8573 views, 47:35	lecture Lecture 20 - The Good Life: Happiness as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 8573 views	7580 views, 56:47	lecture Lecture 19 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 7580 views
7424 views, 54:26	lecture Lecture 18 - What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I (Guest Lecture by Professor Susan Nolen-Hoeksema) as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 7424 views	7105 views, 59:42	lecture Lecture 7 - Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language (cont.); Vision and Memory as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 7105 views
6871 views, 59:48	lecture Lecture 10 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 6871 views	6079 views, 1:04:52	lecture Lecture 17 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II; Some Mysteries: Sleep, Dreams, and Laughter as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 6079 views
5872 views, 58:15	lecture Lecture 16 - A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 5872 views	5687 views, 59:42	lecture Lecture 8 - Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Vision and Memory (cont.) as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 5687 views
5677 views, 53:15	lecture Lecture 11 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 5677 views	5465 views, 1:01:16	lecture Lecture 15 - A Person in the World of People: Morality as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 5465 views
5150 views, 56:06	lecture Lecture 12 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 5150 views