How Pleasure Works

We are attracted, whether we know it or not, to the hidden aspects of things and people. Some teenagers enjoy cutting themselves with razors. Some men pay good money to be spanked by prostitutes. The average Briton spends over a day a week watching television. The thought of sex with a virgin is intensely arousing to many men. Artwork can sell for millions of pounds. Food and alcohol are so compelling that they can come to dominate one's life. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents and go to sentimental movies that make them cry. In this revealing and witty account, Paul Bloom examines the science behind these curious desires, attractions and tastes, exploring one of the most fascinating and fundamental engines of human behaviour. Drawing on insights from child development, philosophy, neuroscience and behavioural economics, "How Pleasure Works" shows how certain universal habits of the human mind explain what we like and why we like it.

ISBN 0099548763   Pages 304 ISBN13 9780099548768 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 211 Publisher Vintage   Published in London Imprint Vintage   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 02 Jun 2011   Spine width (mm) 19 DEWEY 612.8   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

How Pleasure Works has one of the best discussions I've read of why art is pleasurable, why it matters to us, and why it moves us so.--Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

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