Jesse Bering

Jesse Michael Bering (born 6 May 1975) is an American psychologist, writer, and academic. He is Associate Professor in Science Communication at the University of Otago (where he serves as Director of the Centre for Science Communication), 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.

Jesse Bering
Jesse Bering at The GLBT History Museum in San Francisco on July 17, 2012
Born
Jesse Michael Bering

(1975-05-06) May 6, 1975
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPsychologist
Writer
Websitejessebering.com

Education

Bering was born in 1975 in New Jersey, the son of a secular Jewish mother and a non-religious Lutheran father.[1] He attended graduate school at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he earned his MA degree (1999) under Daniel J. Povinelli. He then transferred to Florida Atlantic University, where he obtained a PhD in developmental psychology (2002). His doctoral advisor was the David F. Bjorklund. Bering's formal academic research is in the area of the cognitive science of religion.

Career and views

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,[2] 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),[3] 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,[4] a three-year, €2 million project funded by the European Commission.

Bering has claimed that homophobia could be an evolutionary adaption to fear gay men as pedophiles, which was criticised by other scientists and called "the deepest smear against gay people" in The Atlantic.[5]

In his book Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us he has expressed support for Virtuous Pedophiles, an anti-child sexual abuse group.[6]

Works

References
  1. Bering, The Belief Instinct, 2011, p. 2.
  2. "Bering in Mind - A research psychologist's curious look at human behavior". Scientific American. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  3. "2010 Recognition Awards to Keasling, Bering, and Riley". NOGLSTP. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  4. "Explaining Religion Project". Oxford University, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  5. Dish, The Daily (2011-03-25). "Data Don't Cringe, People Do". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  6. Bussel, Rachel Kramer (2013-10-18). "Can Pedophiles Help Themselves? A Book's Provocative Take on Sexuality". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  7. "Choice editors preview their favorite books and websites of 2011" (Press release). American Library Association. December 13, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
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