How pleasure works

Answering curious questions about our desires and attractions, How Pleasure Works brings together and analyzes aspects of child development, philosophy, neuroscience, and behavioral economics .

How Pleasure Works is a fascinating book about our most mysterious pleasures. Paul Bloom examines the science behind attractions and desires, from animal instincts related to sex and food to the intellectual and uniquely human taste for art, music, and stories.

Pleasure is anything but obvious. Our desires, our attractions, our tastes take us beyond the symmetry of a pretty face, the delight in the sugar or fat in a dish, or the beauty of a painting. The author guides us through a field of human psychology that has been little studied to date, proving that our satisfaction with a specific thing is determined not by what we can see or touch, but by what we believe about its history, its origin, and its nature.

Drawing on insights from child development, philosophy, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, How Pleasure Works shows how certain universal habits of the human mind reveal why we like what we like.