Jesse Bering | |
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.jpg) Bering speaking in 2012 | |
| Born | Jesse Michael Bering (1975-05-06)May 6, 1975 (age 50) |
| Occupations | Psychologist Writer |
| Website | jessebering |
Jesse Michael Bering (born May 6, 1975) is an Americanpsychologist, writer, and academic. He is a professor in Psychology at theUniversity of Otago where he serves as Director of the Centre for Science Communication.
Bering was born in 1975 inNew Jersey, the son of asecular Jewish mother and a non-religiousLutheran father.[1] Having grown up in a highly conservative culture, he reports feeling anxiety about hissexual orientation during his childhood.[2] This experience led to his interest in academic disciplines likehuman sexuality and thecognitive science of religion.[2] He attended graduate school at theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette where he earned his MA degree (1999) under Daniel J. Povinelli, studying chimpanzee social cognition. He then transferred toFlorida Atlantic University, where he obtained a PhD indevelopmental psychology (2002). His doctoral advisor wasDavid F. Bjorklund. Bering's formal academic research is in the area of the cognitive science of religion.
Bering is the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture atQueen's University Belfast and began his career as a psychology professor at theUniversity of Arkansas. After a period as a full-time writer and visiting scholar atWells College, he accepted an academic position in Science Communication at theUniversity of Otago in 2014.
Bering is notable for his frank and humorous handling of controversial issues in psychological science, especially those dealing withhuman sexuality. HisScientific American blog,Bering in Mind,[3] was named a 2010Webby Award Honoree for the Blog-Cultural category by members of TheInternational Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. He also received the 2010 "Scientist of the Year Award" from theNational Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP),[4] an affiliate of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.
He was also a Project Partner in theOxford University-based 'Explaining Religion' project,[5] a three-year, €2 million project funded by theEuropean Commission.
In his bookPerv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us he argues thatparaphilias (so-called "sexual perversions" or "deviancies") should be viewed objectively and judged by the harm they cause, not by moral disgust. His account, in a somewhat light-hearted manner, includes anecdotes of his own experiences as a gay teenager.[6][7][8][9]
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