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Bloom (Descartes' Baby), a psychology professor at Yale, explores pleasure
from evolutionary and social perspectives, distancing himself from the subject's
common association with the senses. By examining studies and anecdotes of pleasure-
inducing activities like eating, art, sex, and shopping, Bloom posits that pleasure
takes us closer to the essence of a thing, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral.
He argues that humans seem to be hard-wired to give, as well as receive, pleasure.
A study using mislabeled, cheap bottles of wine, wherein "Forty experts said the
wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only twelve said this of the
cheap label," demonstrates the complicated sociological components behind what we
find pleasurable. Bloom even briefly examines positive reactions to very hot food
and other "controlled doses of pain." And a study where rhesus monkeys chose
pictures of female hindquarters and high-status monkeys over fruit juice allows
the author to surmise that "Two major vices-pornography and celebrity worship-are
not exclusively human."

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