Nature & Nurture #60: Dr. Iris Berent - How We Reason About Human Nature

Dr. Iris Berent is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Language & Mind Lab at Northeastern University. She is also the author of several books including The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature.

In this episode we discuss Iris’ early work on language development, and how innate capacities for language inspired Iris to study our beliefs about innate parts of human nature. We talk about intuitive dualism, the tendency for us to separate mind from body in how we reason about our own cognition and behavior, and essentialism, our tendency to believe that our bodies have innate and immutable characteristics. Putting these two pieces together, the central thesis of The Blind Storyteller is that we are blind to our own human nature, because we tend to discount innate theories of mind.