Bruce Hood

SuperSense

Why We Believe in the Unbelievable

Talking Points

Hood’s 2006 presentation on this material at the British Association for the Advancement for Science Festival generated enormous media attention in the UK, Europe and Australia. In the U.S., in late 2007, Newsweek devoted an entire “On Science” feature to Hood’s work. An award-winning psychologist, Hood earned his degrees at British universities and has taught at Cambridge, Harvard and MIT. Though he returned to England to accept an endowed chair at the University of Bristol, he currently has grants from Rutgers, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Science to travel back and forth between the UK and America to give lectures.

Description

Innate belief in things beyond what’s rational or natural are common to humans. In fact, according to award-winning cognitive scientist Bruce Hood, this “super sense” is something we’re born with and essential to the way we learn to understand the world. We couldn’t live without it! Therefore it is unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs, or the superstitious behaviors that accompany them, will be successful. Moreover, these beliefs are essential in binding us together as a society.