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Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust

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Aug 7, 2024

Guest

Paul Bloom

Paul Bloom, a prominent psychology professor specializing in moral psychology and child development, dives into fascinating topics about how children develop morality. He discusses children's innate ability to discern right from wrong and how they interpret supernatural beliefs. Bloom also explores the complexities of empathy versus disgust in moral decision-making and the potential for AI therapists. The conversation touches on societal norms around values in human and animal life, while also critiquing traditional perceptions of intelligence and the impact of formal education.

59:13

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INSIGHT

The Role of Disgust

Tyler Cowen suggests disgust might play a role in setting limits, like on immigration, that might not be enforced by pure rationality.
Bloom questions whether views against, say, interracial marriage, are comparable to those that find no harm in it.

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ANECDOTE

Empathy on Podcasts

Tyler Cowen finds signaling empathy more common than substantive answers from podcast guests.
This frustrates him and reinforces his stance against overreliance on empathy.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Gaming LLMs

Paul Bloom shares an anecdote about an LLM providing fabricated research papers when he framed a question suggestively.
He highlights the need to "game" LLMs differently than humans due to their unique theory of mind.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Understanding Morality and Development in Children

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The Ethics of Infant Happiness and Animal Value

12:22 • 6min

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Emotions, Bias, and AI: A Complex Interplay

18:09 • 15min

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The Interplay of Education, Intelligence, and Perception

32:44 • 10min

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Exploring the Morality of Adult Incestuous Relationships

43:12 • 2min

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Psychology Unpacked: The Overrated and Underrated

45:17 • 12min

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The Art of Writing: Strategies for Creative Flow

57:06 • 2min

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Published in 1890, 'The Principles of Psychology' is a two-volume work that lays the groundwork for understanding psychological phenomena through a scientific lens. William James discusses the relationship between mental processes and their underlying physical conditions, introducing key concepts such as the 'stream of consciousness,' the James–Lange theory of emotion, the importance of habit, and the concept of will. The book is based on James's classroom lessons and avoids metaphysical explanations, focusing instead on empirical observations and physiological processes. It has been influential in shaping the field of psychology and continues to be relevant today.

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Talent

How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

Tyler Cowen

Daniel Gross

In this book, Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross delve into the art and science of finding top talent. They cover various scientific research areas relevant to talent search, including how to conduct effective interviews, evaluate intelligence and personality traits, assess talent in online interactions, and identify undervalued talent such as women and individuals with disabilities. The authors provide practical advice and unique interview questions to help startups and organizations find and retain A-level talent.

Paul Bloom is a renowned psychologist and writer specializing in moral psychology, particularly how moral thoughts and actions develop in children. But his interests and books explore a wide range of topics, including the science of pleasure, the morality of empathy, dehumanization, immoral vs moral punishments, and our feelings about animals and robots. Bloom is a professor at the University of Toronto and previously taught at Yale for over 20 years.

Together Paul and Tyler explore whether psychologists understand day-to-day human behavior any better than normal folk, how babies can tell if you're a jerk, at what age children have the capacity to believe in God, why the trend in religion is toward monotheism, the morality of getting paid to strangle cats, whether disgust should be built into LLMs, the possibilities of AI therapists, the best test for a theory of mind, why people overestimate Paul's (and Tyler's) intelligence, why flattery is undersupplied, why we should train flattery and tax empathy, Carl Jung, Big Five personality theory, Principles of Psychology by William James, the social psychology of the Hebrew Bible, his most successful unusual work habit, what he'll work on next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded May 13th, 2024.

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