| organization: | Department of Psychology, Yale University, http://www.yale.edu/psychology/index.html |
| homepage: | http://www.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Bloom.html |
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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:
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YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 0 views |
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Lecture 20 - The Good Life: Happiness
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 58 views |
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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, 56 views |
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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, 26 views |
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Lecture 15 - A Person in the World of People: Morality
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 21 views |
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Lecture 14 - What Motivates Us: Sex
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 252 views |
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Lecture 13 - Why Are People Different?: Differences
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 108 views |
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Lecture 12 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 19 views |
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Lecture 11 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 27 views |
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Lecture 10 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 95 views |
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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, 115 views |
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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, 25 views |
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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, 85 views |
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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, 196 views |
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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, 171 views |
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Lecture 4 - Foundations: Skinner
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 44 views |
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Lecture 3 - Foundations: Freud
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 239 views |
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Lecture 2 - Foundations: This Is Your Brain
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 547 views |
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Lecture 1 - Introduction
as author at YALE PSYC 110 - Introduction to Psychology with Professor Paul Bloom, 522 views |
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