Episode 64 Dr. Bruce M. Hood JUN 24, 2012

Dr. Bruce M. Hood is a Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the UK’s University of Bristol and is the Director of that institution’s Bristol Cognitive Development Centre. Born in Canada, his undergraduate work was in Psychology at the University of Dundee in Scotland from which he received both a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy. He received his PhD from Cambridge in 1991, researching the development of the infant visual perception system. Before teaching at Bristol he held a visiting professorship at MIT and an associate professorship at Harvard. Among his recognitions Dr. Hood has been elected to fellow status of the American Psychological Association and he had the honor in 2011 of delivering the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture. His research interests include cognitive development from a neuroscience perspective and the origin of adult magical reasoning from children’s natural intuitions. Previously the author of the excellent Supersense: Why We Believe The Unbelievable, we asked Dr. Hood to speak to us about his recently released book, The Self Illusion: How The Social Brain Creates Identity. He talked to us about the self, consciousness, memory, perception, cognitive biases, free will, and more. It’s a fascinating conversation, the topic of which is ably, clearly, and compellingly discussed in this great new book.