Jesse Bering

Jesse Bering
Jesse Bering at The GLBT History Museum
Jesse Bering at The GLBT History Museum in San Francisco on July 17, 2012
Born Jesse Michael Bering
(1975-05-06) May 6, 1975
Nationality American
Occupation Psychologist
Writer
Website jessebering.com

Jesse Michael Bering (born 6 May 1975) is a writer and academic. He is Associate Professor in Science Communication at the University of Otago, as well as a frequent contributor to Scientific American, Slate, and Das Magazin (Switzerland). His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Guardian, and The New Republic, and has been featured on NPR, the BBC, Playboy Radio and elsewhere.

Life and career

Bering is the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen's University Belfast and began his career as a psychology professor at the University of Arkansas. After a period as a full-time writer and professor at Wells College, he took up a science communication post at the University of Otago in 2014.

Bering is notable for his frank and humorous handling of controversial issues in psychological science, especially those dealing with human sexuality. His Scientific American blog, Bering in Mind,[1] was named a 2010 Webby Award Honoree for the Blog-Cultural category by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. He also received the 2010 "Scientist of the Year Award" from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He is also a Project Partner in the Oxford University-based 'Explaining Religion' project,[2] a three-year, €2 million project funded by the European Commission.

He attended graduate school at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he earned his MA degree (1999) studying chimpanzee social cognition under the guidance of comparative psychologist Daniel J. Povinelli. He then transferred to Florida Atlantic University, where he obtained a PhD in developmental psychology (2002). His doctoral advisor was the evolutionary developmental psychologist David F. Bjorklund. Bering's formal academic research is in the area of the cognitive science of religion. In his book Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us he has expressed support for Virtuous Pedophiles, an anti-child sexual abuse group.[3]

Works

Bering is the author of The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life (W. W. Norton), Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? And Other Reflections on Being Human (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, released July 3, 2012), Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 8, 2013), and Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves (University of Chicago Press, August 23, 2018). The Belief Instinct was named one of the top 25 books of 2011[4] by the American Library Association.

References

  1. ↑ "Bering in Mind - A research psychologist's curious look at human behavior". Scientific American. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Explaining Religion Project". Oxford University, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ Bussel, Rachel Kramer (2013-10-18). "Can Pedophiles Help Themselves? A Book's Provocative Take on Sexuality". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  4. ↑ "Choice editors preview their favorite books and websites of 2011" (Press release). American Library Association. December 13, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  • Official website
  • University of Otago staff profile
  • Scientific American blog, Bering in Mind
  • "Evolution of Religion: The Adaptive Logic of Religious Beliefs and Behaviour". Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  • "Archive of Articles by Jesse Bering". Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  • "A criticism of Jesse Bering". Retrieved February 28, 2016.
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