Paul Bloom: The origins of pleasure

www.ted.com Why do we like an original painting better than a forgery? Psychologist Paul Bloom argues that human beings are essentialists -- that our beliefs about the history of an object change how we experience it, not simply as an illusion, but as a deep feature of what pleasure (and pain) is.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.

[@JohanBesterphotos]

"It hurts more if you believe that somebody is doing it to you on purpose," knocked me out.

[@hoanganhdu8577]

I came here from his Psychology course on Coursera. The best speech ever. Thank you.

[@cheetahghk8960]

The course is great. I’m enrolled too

[@jrdn.9469]

same

[@Potida1]

One of the best TED speeches for me

[@beldonhuang]

I first came across this talk two years ago, and today I still find it as interesting as it was then. It's amazing to see how feelings of pain and pleasure differ through various scenarios and our own personal beliefs. Absolutely fascinating.

[@Slashtap]

I like how this talk could be titled the origins of pleasure or the pleasure of origins and both would make sense

[@N0Xa880iUL]

Haha absolutely

[@kontekzt]

i love it when after watching a ted talk i feel like i just read a book

[@DaSerpent89]

TED videos are simply one of the best videos that there are on youtube. A 16 min TED video feels like a 3 min video and I guess, the reason for that is - It teaches me things that I might have never known before and makes me think further.

[@ssan6150]

The best research I've ever come across. Thank you

[@SkpVwls]

Great talk. I feel like this is one of those things most people know intuitively but haven't pondered enough to have the idea really sink in and incorporated into their worldview.

[@sinanaslan_10]

Paul Bloom is a really great psychologist and offers a very different perspective unlike most scientists. I also read his book with great pleasure because its author was a very famous psychologist from Yale University named Paul Bloom. :) :)

[@fatgonzo]

One of the best TED talks in a while. Funny in the beginning too.

[@cugs90]

Paul Bloom is fantastic, he has an intro to psychology series of lectures from Yale, online. I'd definitely recommend them.

[@NatureVideo___]

It's one of the best TED talks. Why has it got so less no. of views?

[@seaseas]

This is why I watch TED Talks, thanks for reminding me.

[@shadman1911]

this is why I watch TED, brilliant!

[@TheProdigySupreme]

Wow, great speech. TED is back!

[@Aresftfun]

Very good speech. I learned a lot, once again.

[@maggru91]

After a long period of boring (in my opinion) uploads you have delivered 3 wonderful Ted talks. Thank you very much :) This Robot bird Virus

[@gongfutaijimy]

Wooo Ted Talk is being awesome again recently!

[@BrimHawk]

Has anybody else ever noticed that every single speech, or presentation is followed by a standing ovation of sorts? Some of the speeches and presentations are very good, but not every one of them deserves a standing ovation.

[@greob]

Very interesting talk. I love this topic!

[@theflorgeormix]

Bravo...Wow...well done TED

[@guitarplayer1293]

absolutely brilliant

[@prax9918]

Perfect

[@Lifeintakes]

I really enjoyed this one. Thanks

[@earthkeyper]

Great perspective of our programmed response.

[@afrahfaraj4706]

wow! what a speech!

[@rhyfelur]

I watched a whole semester of his psychology class, on the Yalecourses channel, awhile back. He is really fun to listen to.

[@fratsdomino]

Wonderful!!

[@CircusOfBedlam]

wow, great talk!

[@natedejuggla]

@googoo120 me too, i really got involved in this one as well, and unlike other TED videos i've watched, the time really flew by during this one.

[@therealfocusguru]

Wow, great ted!

[@IsabelleRizoTheBellaVie]

I get to read his book for my philosophy class! :) it's really good so far.

[@AutodidacticPhd]

Neat stuff. It ties in directly to research on the placebo effect and several other interesting things going on in cognitive neuroscience these days.

[@rodrigopimenta2643]

Brilliant!!!!

[@natedejuggla]

@NatSimTho well, their in a super good mood just to be there, so something thats okay to us sitting at home is alot more enjoyable to them since they are in an elevated mood, and not EVERY speech gets a standing ovation, alot do, because alot of them ARE outstanding, but i feel like giving a standing ovation is not only to say "hey, that was a really good speech" but rather also, "hey, you are very passionate about your field of expertise, i respect that, and i'll show u by standing an clapping

[@PR0H0LDEM]

Excellent speech:)

[@Goodyearmonkey]

this was great

[@madmojojo2]

great video!

[@elsaaforges]

The subject of intellectual perception is amazing. Professor Bloom is absolutely right when he says that we don't buy a piece of art but a story. I would add to this that what we also buy is the uniqueness of something that was created in the past, and the past with its environment cannot be replicated. I mean, when I get carried away by Mozart's music is not just because of its intrinsic beauty, but also because it was created in the past, and past can't go forward. If I listen to some classical contemporary music, even if it's beautiful, it doesn't have the same value as Mozart's since the composer's alive so he or she can create more music. It's not as unique as Mozart, Bach or Schubert. They are dead and they can't create anymore. The same applies to Vermeer or any other painter. A good forger can forge a Vermeer or a Caravaggio, and even if the forgery is as good as Van Meegeren's, he was able to make as many forgeries as he wanted in the 20th century (until he died in 1947). Bottom line, we crave what we don't have so we long for it. Art from the past can be forged, but artists from the past are dead and that's what makes their art so unique.

[@McPrfctday]

Excellent! This also exposes different people's personalities. I know hardly anyone who has kept their babies first boots. But if I was there when they threw them in the bin I'd have thought seriously about fishing them back out. Probably with an idea of giving them to the people 20 years later.

[@AlgeKalipso]

@nikanj And of course, the 'Yale' label plays the role of a legitimizing psychological factor that adds authenticity to what he says, and you experience it as more interesting. Listen to what I have to say, I study at Stanford (actually).

[@Human_Evolution-]

Amazing

[@oicub2]

Great TED Talk Shows just how Shallow people Really are ..

[@b.bfreire6809]

Very interesting!

[@dileepkumar-td6xv]

Brilliant

[@natedejuggla]

@BrimHawk to understand why every speech receives a standing ovation, you must understand the context in which the speech is presented. The audience at a TED conference is not your typical demographic off the street, but educated passionate professionals from all different skill sets, that are hand picked to be part of the audience as well, everyone in the audience is there to give a presentation. It also costs 5,000 dollars to attend.

[@Arghira]

I love this video, I've enjoy it and I've watched twice ...but when I've search for Paul Bloom and found Why Do We Like What We Like? I realized something...It's weird but I will now like to give this video 4 stars (not 5)

[@wessex19]

I enjoyed that

[@Arghira]

I wanna hug this guy

[@xtinct2]

very good!

[@nhatnamphan9694]

Source Grateful ❤

[@zydomason]

finally a good psychology talk

[@cadamo10]

Epic! Can I please go back to Yale now?

[@Talon3000]

I would totally get that forgery at 03:25. Why? Not because it looks like the real thing, but because for years people thougt it was. The most interesting thing about a painting is its story, i think. And that story is just great.

[@whitescape]

very interesting

[@DEKeeble]

Wow! Freakin awesome

[@Ivenaface]

Yay ! Paul Bloooom ...

[@dsdougharty]

I am going to have to look up john milton!

[@romanjot76]

Great

[@Fallenskate069]

@IWantSoundKnowledge Its already great quality. Any other video this would be HD. lol

[@Vid_Master]

@ryanexsus Thank you for pointing that out.

[@Toastmaster_5000]

@Danil Eremeev true, although there are a lot of crappy schools out there. i happened to go to pretty decent ones but I'm aware of schools that have poor ciriculums, lazy teachers, or insufficient funding

[@StephenDeagle]

My two cents and Lacan's take on essentialism: Lacan's object a refers to the object-cause of desire: that which is in the object more than the object and which makes us desire it in the first place. It alludes to the originally lost object (the missing element that would resolve drive and "restore" fulfilment) and, at the same time, functions as an embodiment of lack; as a loss positivised.

[@00corin00]

this was cool.

[@ghostbuddy]

If anyone is interested, Yale university has a collection of lectures from Paul Bloom's intro to psychology course on youtube! You can probably find it on the right hand side of this video in the suggestions section! Same humor, same lecturing style!

[@geganobo]

This guy has a cool lecture series from yale on youtube

[@IllegalTacos]

This is so crazy, and it really is true. Just like created gems versus the real gemstone. The real gem took hundred to thousands of years to form into the structure it is today from more basic elements, but is chemically indifferent to a created gem. The created gems are cheaper, have better clarity, are more flawless, and yet are less valued to the average person.

[@slowflowheat]

Aha, interesting. I saw his book in the store, but did not buy it. Though interesting, it seemed like a puffed-out piece of popular science. So hopefully I'll get the "essence", an important idea with precedent in literature.

[@bornearth]

this was very good. look what knowing origins did to "millie vanillie" (sp?)

[@LiveToThink]

6:20 OMG that's me on the left!

[@isura7]

@rebechocc but how would your heart register what joy or pain is?

[@2at8er]

@Charles33333 Oh, you're right. Thanks.

[@TwistedMesses]

Paul Bloom for pres

[@soham8368]

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts." - The Dhammapada.

[@skygod6747]

The mind is its own place itself, it can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven. Fantabulous!

[@niriop]

Same talk as at the RSA, but still execellent

[@FedorLejepekov]

Joshua Bell story awesome ).

[@jasonreynolds3903]

Essentialism @ 4:05

[@gulllars]

@jonjescabar Well, the main goal of school in grades 1-10 is to get you ready to be a worker of any kind and be a functioning member of society, not to teach you about world, that's just a side-effect. Though many would claim differently, if you look at the school system, that's how it's set up. Most of the material in this talk are not news to me, but put togheter in the talk it shed some light on a few things.

[@natedejuggla]

this is why i'm a psych major :)

[@JohnBlonn]

@shimauma He's Canadian.

[@kll.c]

i'm listening, veeery carefully

[@2at8er]

I've watched this somewhere before...

[@itsdevgarg]

🔥

[@MrAn0nym0us]

@cugs90 Came here to say exactly this!

[@jessieilham]

Those Vermeer weren't forgeries of existing real Vermeers. Han van Meegeren just created his own paintings in the style, tool, technique that Vermeer would've used. When he's doing a side by side comparison of the 'real' vermeer and the 'forged' vermeers, those are actually the exact same painting

[@jessieilham]

They weren;t even close to real Vermeers actually, technique is lacking and they're very flat and not as well rendered

[@N3rdyDav3]

Is it possible, in the case of the Street Corner violinist, that some people simply didn't have the time to listen to him? It's different taking in music when you have time, as opposed to when you're going somewhere. Or that some people simply refuse to give money to musicians on the street? I know some people resent that kind of performance and don't give money based on principle, not on the quality of the music.

[@HectorL360]

placebo effect

[@happyandauthentic]

is this a form of the placebo effect?

[@JohnBlonn]

@shimauma cool

[@jofx]

To give more value to the speaker since you KNOW its better?

[@michael616joaquin]

@fanosth maybe you havent read enough yourself? As for sharing their ideologies yes i do, i'm happy to debate them as well..if you want to.

[@MoOtJeMan]

@Darvinisti No.After they found out that the guy cheated the nazi with his forgery, he was given a lesser sentence of forgery a measly one year and compared to the death sentence, it's pretty much an awesome deal. This guy also said that he died a Dutch hero so i don't know how you got your conclusion. lol.

[@NEWHANDLE.]

@natedejuggla I see.

[@AutodidacticPhd]

@kontekzt If you like intellectually stimulating videos, try typing "mit ocw" after the name of a subject you like in a youtube search... there's a good chance you'll get an entire semester of lectures on the topic from MIT. A good one to start with is "Godel MIT OCW".

[@villainy07]

the guy from open Yale

[@SuccessfulStu1]

What would Dr. Bloom say about plastic surgery?

[@donl346]

The example of violinist doesn't hold water as the high-heels or those who attend the black-tie event simply won't take the metro in the first place.

[@TobeySez]

I went to some good schools so the rest is just continuing education. It's sad that there are so many poor schools.