How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like

Why is an artistic masterpiece worth millions more than a convincing forgery? Pleasure works in mysterious ways, as Paul Bloom reveals in this investigation of what we desire and why. Drawing on a wealth of surprising studies, Bloom investigates pleasures noble and seamy, lofty and mundane, to reveal that our enjoyment of a given thing is determined not by what we can see and touch but by our beliefs about that thing#xE2;#x80;#x99;s history, origin, and deeper nature.

Paul Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale University and the author of Descartes' Baby. He has contributed to The Atlantic, the New York Times, and Nature. He lives in New Haven. Visit his Web site at www.howpleasureworks.com.