Paul Bloom: The Psychology of Everything | Big Think
Paul Bloom: The Psychology of Everything
Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo
Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge
———————————————————————————-
Give Paul Bloom one hour, and he’ll teach you “the psychology of everything.” Through the case studies of compassion, racism, and sex, Dr. Bloom explores the intrinsic fundamentals of human nature, including some of our most intriguing tendencies, such as the kindness of babies, stereotyping (which can be both detrimental and beneficial), and our universal sense of beauty. Additional topics addressed in the lecture include: “What do studies suggest is the number one characteristic that males and females look for in a mate?”, “How can I get someone to have compassion for causes I care about?”, “Are we all unconscious racists?”, and even, “What do the porn preferences of monkeys tells us about our own sexual choices?”
———————————————————————————-
PAUL BLOOM:
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. An internationally recognized expert on the psychology of child development, social reasoning, and morality, he has won numerous awards for his research, writing, and teaching. Bloom’s previous books include Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, and he has written for Science, Nature, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.
———————————————————————————-
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, my name is Paul Bloom and I’m a Professor of Psychology at Yale University. And what I want to do today is present a brief introduction to psychology, which is the science of the human mind.
Now, I’m admittedly biased, but I think psychology is the most interesting of all scientific fields. It’s the most interesting because it’s about us. It’s about the most important and intimate aspects of our lives. So psychologists study everything from language, perception, memory, motivation, dreams, love, hate. We study the development of a child. We study mental illnesses like schizophrenia and psychopathy, we study morality, we study happiness.
Now, psychology is such a huge field that it breaks up into different subfields. Some psychologists study neuroscience, which is the study how the brain gives rise to mental life. Others, like me, are Developmental Psychologists. We study what happens to make a baby turn into a child and a child turn into adults. We study what makes a baby turn into a child and a child turn into an adult. We ask questions like, how does a baby think about the world? What do we start off knowing? What do we have to learn?
Other psychologists are Social Psychologists. They study human interaction. What’s the nature of prejudice? How do we persuade one another?
Some Psychologists are Cognitive Psychologists. What that means is they study the mind as a computational device looking particularly at capacities like language, perception, memory, and decision-making. Some Psychologists are Evolutionary Psychologists, which means they’re particularly interested in biological origin of the human mind.
There are Evolutionary Psychologists. Evolutionary Psychologists are particularly interested in the evolutionary origin of our psychologies. So they study the mind with an eye towards how it has evolved. What adaptive problems it’s been constructed to solve.
Finally, there’s clinical psychology. For many people, this is what psychology means. Many people associate psychology with clinical psychology, and in fact, it’s a very important aspect of psychology. Clinical psychologists are interested in the diagnosis that the causes and the treatment of mental disorders, disorders like schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders. It would be impossible for me to provide a full spectrum introduction to all of these sub fields of psychology in the time I have.
So what I’m going to do instead is I’m going to focus on three case studies. I’m gong to focus on compassion, racism, and sex. I’ve chosen these case studies for two reasons. First, each of them is particularly interesting in its own light. These are questions we’re interested in as people, as scientists, but also in our every day lives. And I want to try to persuade you that psychologists have some interesting things to say about them.
Second, together they illustrate the range of approaches that psychologists use. The sort of theories that we construct, the sorts of methods we use when approaching a domain. I want to try to give you a feeling for what psychology looks like when we actually carry it out.
The first case study is compassion. Compassion…
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/psychology-is-the-study-of-innate-human-compassion
@bigthink
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Thanks for watching (and sharing)! We have 5 more that we'll release from this series. Stay tuned.
@blt-h2s
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
I think it's gay I'm not allowed to leave a comment on the Yale psych course
@EvanJohnston-s4v
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Leave them kids alone
@sherececocco
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
45:40 ?
Guide them to their self-trust and they will tell you for themselves. If you put self-trust and self-fear on a spectrum you will see that a "psychopath " would probably be the farthest from self-trust. Guidance back to center will help you both. Win-win. Trust you 💛 it is golden 💛 ✨️
@sherececocco
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Really? I disagree. Self-trust is the language of everything and this includes psychology. Self-trust is the answer to who God's the God's. I believe self-trust and self-fear are the same thing. I can only trust others to the extent I trust myself and I wish self-trust on every child and I don't mess with them and they trust themselves. They just do. Can you trust yourself? Can you wish self-trust on others? No forcing. Like watching grass grow that you don't need to cut. Uncuttable. Born whole in my opinion.
Pity, praise, pedestalizing, and punishment are forms of manipulating and normalized dysfunction and abuse. Abuse meaning not used for intended purpose. Manipulating is for puppets not people. People meaning children. This is where it starts.
I was standing in a line at a movie theater and there was a family in front of me.
Kid: I want candy
Parent: no you don't you just ate
Kid: 😕
I wish people could hear themselves. This child did want candy. I heard them say it with words. And the parent was completely wrong. Parents that tell their children how they feel are Fuckers, sincerely.
We teach children to not trust themselves and to hide their self-trust to survive. Stop imagining. Stop manipulating child and treat them like a being being and trust will grow this world in way some people never thought of.
@xCaDix
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Thank you for the concept of Statistical generalisions
@paulkareta
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
There is another theory that says that you are looking for a face symmetrical to yours
@UnscheduledProgram
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Pure garbage.
@wlailg5978
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Why is racism against whites never mentioned?
@beyondthesurfacemosolomon
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
❤
@ChrisSargent-f5j
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Perez Edward Lee Barbara Thomas Barbara
@andreatassi7162
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
I wished this video never ended,very enlightening and well explained,especially the part on compassion and persuasion .Big thank to Big Think and thank to Paul and his coworker aswell
@HossienMousavinezhad
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Very informtive and good video
Thank you paul bloom❤
@saradejesus9869
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
All your so called 'proof' that children are intrinsically kind is flawed. That kind of behavior is influenced by both nature and nurture. I believe one baby crying triggering others to cry is that the ones who are triggered believe that, due to the first baby crying there is something to cry about so there is both imitation and fear involved, not altruism. I wish the world was the way you see it.
@Clicker3
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
God this fucking video editor
@meditativ_ely
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Dr. Paul Bloom did an amazing online course for Yale on Coursera- Introduction to Psychology. 3 months of fascinating studies (free of charge or 50 eur per/month if you want the certificate) that helped me make better sense of the world and I printed my Yale certificate at the end ;P Honestly, I do recommend it not just for the fancy name )
@fatimajahan-nn1ix
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
The lecture was great and helpful thanks
@ScooterInUrCooter1738
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Looks like r nd k selection theory wasn't so far off was it………………..
@jediTempleGuard
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Al Gore?
@Letmebecringe
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
I’ve found I disagree with the sentiment that the more easily disgusted you are, the more judgmental of our groups you are. The thought of the cat made me physically ill; although the seat doesn’t bother me. I’d like to consider myself to be accepted of almost all groups. The only groups of people that I don’t like are p*dophiles, and zo*philes. I could be an outlier however because I myself am a minority. I’m transgender.
It’s also possible that the cat example triggers the sense of empathy and compassion because no one wants their pets to die.
@stormingcrow2541
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
There are some VERY outdated approaches to topics in this video. Saying women will perform worse because they had to identify themselves as a woman and they know women suck at tests is making a LOT of assumptions about what is going on in that person's head and what they may think about themselves in relation to society.
@ioannak.4690
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
____________________________
SEX
32:56 Why is the gender with the smaller s*x cell bigger?
《Males typically have less investment in their offspring than females》
《Males can have unlimited offspring,
Females can have a very limited number of offspring》
34:25 Economic Game structure of Human Sexuality: Male complete with one another for a female
● 35:15 ATRACTING ATTENTION:
Female choosing & male traits
36:10 Females are more choosy to short-term partners than Males
*What appeals to men is often sort of images of seaxually receptive women (The image is enough to lead to arousal)
● 37:48 WHAT IS UNIVERSAL
38:11 SENSE OF BEAUTY
Beauty = Youth
▪︎ Round Eyes
▪︎ Full Lips
▪︎ Smooth Skin
Beauty = Health
▪︎ No deformities
▪︎ Clear eyes
▪︎ Unblemished Skin
▪︎ Intact Teeth
▪︎ Average Faces (39:19)
《Babes prefer the same kind of faces that adults prefer》
*Sexual Psychologies are linked to our reproductive preferences
41:56 ATRACTION TO KINDNESS
《Attraction depends on affection》
*The more you like sb, the better they look to you
____________________________
1. NEUROSCIENCE
– Baby's Brain: Development of compassion
2. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
– Studies development of compassion in children
– Studies our understanding of groups and the nature of racism
– Studies development of romance and sexuality pre- and post- puberty
3. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
– Studies Human relationships: How we deal with and make sense of other people
4. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
– Studies perception: Faces, categories (in and out groups), comprehension
5. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
– Studies development across species: Sexuality, morality, compassion
6. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
– Studies sexual deviancy, immoral and amoral behavior amd lack of compassion
____________________________
ASPECTS OF OURSELVES:
– How we understand people
– Our emotions
– Our motivations
– Our desires
– Sense of right & wrong
All of these can be understood throught the methods of scientific psychology, through constructing and testing hypothesis
《The more you understand the mind from a serious scientific point of view,
The more you appreciate its complexity, its uniqueness & its beauty》
@beldonhuang
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
How fascinating! There is also another talk by him, which I also found quite interesting, called "The Origins of Pleasure" on TED. So interesting that even made a video based on it! Highly recommend
@MEDSimplified
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Amazing video
@ToFree4U
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
I love his pure commitment to curiosity and the truth. He doesn't seem like he's out to confirm biases, but only to understand.
One day I will finish his course on Coursera… eventually.
@ERIC18923
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Crazy to think of how Uncle Tom is used today
@sunbrown8536
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
the CC is all wrong.
@milakim5139
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
OMG, that is so interesting 🤔 Generally, I don't view psychological videos often, but I was instantly hooked on this one
@Universal_Bias
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
Is it a coincidence that the attribute most humans find attractive (Kindness) is the one that has the ability to see past the conscious and unconscious backdrops? A tool worth learning how to use.
@sophiat2058
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
That is not true. Just the other day i moved on a train seat because not only was it eeally warm but the bad odour accompanyimg it 🤢 i do not have an aversion to other cultures!
@youngjezy23
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
I can’t understand every one’s mind I can only understand my own
@felixxia3604
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
the boy at 7:20, i want to hug him. i wish he would not change and have even more compassion like that forever. if only everyone is like that….. the world will be even more beautiful
@ulisesfonseca7937
March 13, 2026 at 3:27 am
the wicked ai took the subtitles
Comments are closed.