My brother is severely autistic, so when I was a kid I spent a lot of time as a teenager in camps… — Paul Bloom Autistic Copy Share Image
I don't doubt that the explanation for consciousness will arise from the mercilessly scientific account of psychology and neuroscience, but, still, isn't… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
It has been a period where people have been far nicer to one another in every possible way. I'm not saying it's… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“The serial killer Gary Gilmore summed up the attitude of someone without moral feelings: “I was always capable of murder.… I can become… — Paul Bloom Serial killer Copy Share Image
“As the psychologist Steven Pinker puts it, “Exposure to worlds that can be seen only through the eyes of a foreigner, an… — Paul Bloom Herodotus Copy Share Image
I think there's some evidence that we're empathic by nature. There is some evidence from studies of babies and young children that… — Paul Bloom Baby Copy Share Image
Natural selection shaped the human brain to be drawn toward aspects of nature that enhance our survival and reproduction, like verdant landscapes… — Paul Bloom Animals Copy Share Image
I want to convince you that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don't… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Most of us know nothing about constitutional law, so it's hardly surprising that we take sides in the Obamacare debate the way… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
If our moral attitudes are entirely the result of nonrational factors, such as gut feelings and the absorption of cultural norms, they… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“Being a good person likely is more related to distanced feelings of compassion and kindness, along with intelligence, self-control, and a sense… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Once we accept violence as an adaptation, it makes sense that its expression is calibrated to the environment. The same individual will… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
We know that young babies, as they become capable of moving voluntarily, will share. They will share food, for instance, with their… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“Marsh recounts an anecdote about a psychopath who was being tested with a series of pictures and who failed over and over… — Paul Bloom Fear Copy Share Image
I'm really interested in the pleasure we get from stories and the pleasure we get from movies, and certainly the pleasure we… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on… — Paul Bloom Acts of kindness Copy Share Image
More-radical scholars insist that an inherent clash exists between science and our long-held conceptions about consciousness and moral agency: if you accept… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Some scholars argue that although the brain might contain neural subsystems, or modules, specialized for tasks like recognizing faces and understanding language,… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Maybe one of the most heartening findings from the psychology of pleasure is there's more to looking good than your physical appearance.… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Something as important and central and encompassing as empathy can't be all bad. I think empathy plays a role in intimate relationships,… — Paul Bloom Care Copy Share Image
It's really difficult working with kids and with babies because they are not cooperative subjects: they are not socialized into the idea… — Paul Bloom Babies Copy Share Image
You'd expect, as good Darwinian creatures, we would evolve to be fascinated with how the world really is, and we would use… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Empty heads, cognitive science has taught us, learn nothing. The powerful cultural and personal flexibility of our species is owed at least… — Paul Bloom Attention Copy Share Image
Having kids has proven to be this amazing - for me, this amazing source of ideas of anecdotes, of examples, I can… — Paul Bloom Advantage Copy Share Image
I draw a lot from Buddhism, which focuses on compassion and kindness, loving kindness, as they call it, but rejects empathy because… — Paul Bloom Buddhism Copy Share Image
I think if we could turn the dial a bit, and try to take what the philosopher Henry Sidgwick called "the point… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
You might argue on utilitarian grounds that the best way for the world to work is for everybody to take care of… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Morality is often seen as an innovation, like agriculture and writing. From this perspective, babies are pint-sized psychopaths, self-interested beings who need… — Paul Bloom Agriculture Copy Share Image
“So if the world were a simple place, where the only dilemmas one had to deal with involved a single person in… — Paul Bloom Empathy Copy Share Image
I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult… — Paul Bloom Characters Copy Share Image
When you start writing things to try to persuade someone who's not already part of your guild or your profession that something… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I have huge admiration for people who think like the effective altruist, who try to rationally think about how they can change… — Paul Bloom Admiration Copy Share Image
Enjoying fiction requires a shift in selfhood. You give up your own identity and try on the identities of other people, adopting… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
People differ in where they direct their empathy and their compassion. Many people are intensely concerned about the suffering of non-human animals,… — Paul Bloom Animal Copy Share Image
Our best hope for the future is not to get people to think of all humanity as family - that's impossible. It… — Paul Bloom Appreciation Copy Share Image
Part of the satisfaction of tattling surely comes from showing oneself to adults as a good moral agent, a responsible being who… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
We benefit, intellectually and personally, from the interplay between different selves, from the balance between long-term contemplation and short-term impulse. We should… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Perhaps looking out through big baby eyes - if we could - would not be as revelatory experience as many imagine. We… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Even in the most peaceful communities, an appetite for violence shows up in dreams, fantasies, sports, play, literature, movies and television. And,… — Paul Bloom Angels Copy Share Image
“Moral deliberation has to be somewhere in the brain, after all. It’s not going to be in the foot or the stomach,… — Paul Bloom Character Copy Share Image
