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Joseph Chilton Pearce (born January 14, 1926 , Pineville, Kentucky, US) is an American author of a number of books on child development. He prefers the name "Joe".

He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He graduated with a BA from College of William and Mary, received a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University, and did post-graduate studies at Geneva Theological College.

He presents the idea of the heart - or compassionate mind - as another categorization of brain function with equal stature as the thalamus, prefrontal cortex, and lower brain. He believes that active, imaginative play is the most important of all childhood activities because that cultivates a mastery of one's environment. He coins the term "creative competence" to discuss that mastery. Further, children without that form of play develop feeling of isolation and anxiety. He also believes that child parent bonding is important, and blames both a lack of breast feeding and modern childbirth as obstructive to that bonding.