Speaker: Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto & Yale University

We occasionally act in ways that are wrong—morally or otherwise—at least partially because of the wrongness, as when we break a rule just for the sake of breaking it. Paul Bloom explores theories of such perverse actions, including failures of thought suppression, signaling, strategic behavior, expressions of autonomy, and “hopeful monsters.” Some of these fail to adequately explain perversity, but others are more successful. Bloom suggests that studying perverse actions can tell us interesting things about human nature.