How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
by Paul Bloom. W. W. Norton, 2010
What sets humans apart from other animals? Psychologist Paul Bloom thinks it’s the fact that we like Tabasco sauce. Actually, not just Tabasco but any food that is, at least at first, “aversive.” In How Pleasure Works, Bloom tries to get to the bottom of why humans enjoy such weird pleasures as uncomfortably spicy food and owning an unwashed sweater once worn by George Clooney. The book is a compilation of examples of normal, odd and pathological human behaviors that range from the mundane (consuming bottled water) to the utterly horrifying (murdering and eating other human beings).
Bloom’s central argument is that many human pleasures are accidents. These accidents are caused by essentialism, our ability to identify the essence of something pleasurable. For example, a pair of shoes once worn by a baby is more than just laces and leather—it is an object that contains memories of first steps and trips to the playground. Essentialism, he says, “pushes our desires in directions that have nothing to do with survival and reproduction.” It lets us care more about what we think something is than what it actually is, Bloom argues. “For a painting, it matters who the artist was,” and “for a steak, we care about what sort of animal it came from.”
Bloom develops this theory more thoroughly for some categories of human pleasures than for others. We learn, for example, that despite describing sex as life’s most pleasurable activity, the average American adult spends as much time having it as he or she does filling out tax forms. And one of Bloom’s studies showed that although our enjoyment of art is an accident, even three-year-old children understand that art is no mistake—it matters whether a blob of paint was spilled on a canvas or put there intentionally.
How Pleasure Works may be “a chronicle of human silliness,” but it also reminds us that there are often unsettling consequences to our irrational desires. These include, for example, when we spend our money on expensive clothing, cars and art rather than on saving starving children or when our obsession with food destroys our own health. As Bloom points out, “there is a cost to our pleasure.”
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10 Comments
Add CommentI don't know many three-year-olds, but strongly suspect that most could "paint" as well as Jackson Pollock.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother psychologist striving to find value [for himself] in worthlessness. Pleasure from this truly would be an accident!
I'd like to show the Gaul Jackson Pollock's "Moon Woman" paintings, which are extraodinary and beautiful! And, according to some, have hidden messages.You can, in fact, find these on Google's "Image Search."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not overly fond of Pollock's drip-paint creations either, but I don't despise them. Every artist must experiment. To disallow something different by making fun of the artist, will in the long run diminish art and turn it into conformity to one narrow set of opinions. We need MORE original ideas in art, not fewer. Every original concept is a potential wake-up call to some human child who might otherwise never have been energized to feel and think.
Perhaps caring more about what we think something is than what it actually is may account for why we often seem to care more about what we emotionally want something to be than what reason would tell us it actually is. The neural mechanism that accounts for this faulty logic might explain why some favor liberal statism and others prefer fiscal conservative free enterprise capitalism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWilliam Best
reason2succeed@comcast.net
Perhaps caring more about what we think something is than what it actually is may account for why we often seem to care more about what we emotionally want something to be than what reason would tell us it actually is. The neural mechanism that accounts for this faulty logic might explain why some favor “liberal” statism and others prefer fiscal conservative free enterprise capitalism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWilliam Best
reason2succeed@comcast.net
I know, for me at least, not having to reformat and reinstall Windows every six months makes my life a joy. I just bill those who have me fix theirs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's what I used their money for: A Mac.
Pure Pleasure.
sure, we are aware now that emotions/feelings distort the senses because we have a marvelous thinking sense organ called the neo-cortex which has evolved to improve our experience of objective actuality. but... at present it remains dissociated from its full potential because its still dominated by the old mid-brain (dog brain/emotional brain) and lizard brain which distorts and stunts its huge capacity for clear sense-able thinking if exquisitely coordinated with the 5 senses. we are like no other animal. but unfortunately we have lost the plot. instead this new cortical awareness has morphed into a dangerously self centered creature, obsessed with 2 WHO's .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1 'WHO i feel i am' and who others feel i am. and
2.'WHO i think i am' and who others think i am and what 'i think' is happening.
and this blinds us from WHAT we actually are and WHAT is actually happening tangibly and experientially via the 5 'sensible' senses.
a dire state of affairs indeed because by remaining dissociated in an emotional and imaginary visual cortical world of our own making we expose ourselves to being brain-washable by other equally cunning half-configured neo-cortexes ....and this awful mayhem will continue.
to enter the pristine perfection of this ACTUAL planet and become the asset we were meant to be, we 'must' focus on what is ACTUALLY happening sensately. and we can only do this by becoming less obsessed with imaginary things and less emotionally disturb-able.
Well, pleasure acts in strange ways. But we gradually learn to adopt a more balanced theory towards life for our own good. I believe, pleasure can be an excellent medicine for many types of illnesses. However, the way we derive pleasure should be acceptable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn response to the Pollock comments; I read in 'Pyschology Today' that because of the fractal nature of Pollocks art, it's "visual repitition and organization", it is pleasing, just as a more natural and less geometric object such as a cloud or tree. It also said that knockoff's did not contain this quality. So I suppose it is just one's taste that would determine whether you found this skill pleasurable, or worthless.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn response to the Pollock comments; I read in 'Pyschology Today' that because of the fractal nature of Pollocks art, it's "visual repitition and organization", it is pleasing, just as a more natural and less geometric object such as a cloud or tree. It also said that knockoff's did not contain this quality. So I suppose it is just one's taste that would determine whether you found this skill pleasurable, or worthless.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just finished Mr. Bloom's HOW PLEASURE WORKS and don't understand what the fuss is about. He rehashes a bunch of marketing ideas and omigod EVOLUTIONISM! wow!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe doesn't even touch on the idea of identity and how it is formed by the greater context of the culture in which one lives---and how that effects how pleasure works.
A better title for this book would be HOW MARKETING WORKED ON THOSE WHO FOUND THIS BOOK GROUNDBREAKING.
That said, he's not a bad writer.