"The Self Illusion" with Bruce Hood (BSP 88)

Bruce Hood, PhD

The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity, by Bruce Hood, is a fascinating look at how our brains create both our experience of the world and our sense of being a single, coherent self.  As the word "illusion" in the title indicates, neither is exactly what it seems.  When I interviewed Dr. Hood (BSP 88), he explained that The Self Illusion is a broad introduction to this somewhat surprising idea. TheSelf Illusion was written with a general audience in mind.  For those already familiar with the topic, he also puts a new emphasis on the role of development.  All readers should come away with a new appreciation for the critical role social interactions play through out human life.

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Related Podcasts:

• Books and Ideas #34: Bruce Hood talks about his first book, SuperSense. (mp3)

• BSP 29: Dr. Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. (mp3)

• BSP 57: Dr. Chris Frith, author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World. (mp3)

• BSP 67: Thomas Metzinger, PhD, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self. (mp3)

• Books and Ideas #43: Dr. Carol Tavris explains the basics of cognitive dissonance. (mp3)

• BSP 72: The Neuroscience of Magic. (Listen Now)

• BSP 75: Dr. David Eagleman, author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. (mp3)

• Books and Ideas #48: Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. (mp3)

Additional References:

• SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable, by Bruce M. Hood. (Audible link)

• The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity, by Bruce Hood (Audible link)

• Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney (Audible link)

• Please see the FREE episode transcript for many additional references, including references to the scientific studies discussed in this podcast.

Announcements:

• I will be in Philadelphia, PA October 16-21 to attend the AAFP annual meeting. Listeners who live in the area and physicians who are attended this meeting are invited to drop me an email if interested in getting together in person.

• The latest episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. This episode continues some of the same themes explored in BSP 88.

• Upcoming episodes: Discussion of Self Comes to Mind, by Antonio Damasio, and interviews with Evan Thompson (Mind in Life) and Jaak Panksepp (The Archaeology of Mind).

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"SuperSense": Bruce Hood on Believing the Unbelievable

Episode 34 of Books and Ideas  is an interview with Bruce M Hood, author of SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable .

Dr. Hood is a developmental psychologist with a long-standing interest in why people believe weird things.  In SuperSense, he argues that innate cognitive structures (how we think without being taught) give people a natural tendency toward belief in the supernatural.  Our intuitive sense of how the world works is often at odds with the findings of modern science.

In this interview we discuss the evidence for these conclusions and their implications.

Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Click here for detailed show notes and to learn more about more free episodes of Books and Ideas.