Dr Tali Sharot: Cognitive neuroscientist and author of The Optimism Bias and The Influential Mind, blending psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics to study human decision making, optimism and emotion.
What this episode covers
Dr Tali Sharot joins Steven Bartlett to unpack the science of happiness, optimism and influence. She argues happiness is one of three drivers of a good life alongside meaning and a psychologically rich (varied) life, and explains why people fail to make changes they should. She details the optimism bias, how it is self-fulfilling, why facts rarely change minds while emotion and stories do, and how stress flips us into pessimism. The conversation also covers stereotype threat, emotional contagion, why fear freezes action while reward drives it, and the brain's tendency to stop noticing both good and bad things over time.
The guest's own work
The Optimism Bias
Tali Sharot
“on the back of your book here the optimism biased it says you're one of the most Innovative neuroscientists at work today”— Steven Bartlett
The Influential Mind
Tali Sharot
“that's somewhat confirm some of the things that I read in your second book The influential mind where I remember I was watching a YouTube video”— Steven Bartlett
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Nudge
Cass Sunstein
“which I'm writing together with Cass Einstein um who is the co-author of nudge and it was actually in fact about happiness”— guest
Who Moved My Cheese
Spencer Johnson
“like farming and hunting it's like the analogy I think from that book who Moved My Cheese”— Steven Bartlett
Big reveals from this episode
- Sharot changed her mind: happiness is one of three factors that matter, alongside meaning and a psychologically rich (varied) life.
- A Steven Levitt coin-flip study showed people who made a change they were considering ended up happier, suggesting we make too few changes.
- Highlighting common ground (vaccines prevent deadly disease) instead of debating autism made parents three times more likely to vaccinate.
- A Harvard study found people are happiest the day before vacation, not during it, because anticipation beats the experience.
- Pessimism is an actual symptom of depression; severely depressed people hold a pessimistic bias about their own future.
- Rewards drive action while fear/punishment triggers freezing, because the brain evolved to act for good things and stay put to avoid bad ones.
- Sharot's next book is about how the brain stops noticing constant things, both good and bad, due to neural adaptation.
Worth remembering
- One step up the optimism scale is associated with roughly $33,000 more in annual salary over the long term.
- Once people make a choice, seconds later they rationalize it and rate the chosen option as much better than before.
- Emotions like fear and joy are contagious; we unconsciously mimic others' facial expressions, which feeds back into how we feel.
- Reminding a woman of her gender before a math test, or race before an IQ test, lowers performance via stereotype threat.
- After Obama was elected, grades for African American students went up, linked to boosted self-confidence.
- About 30% of how optimistic we are is genetically determined, based on twin studies.
- Happiness follows a U-shape across life, bottoming out around age 40 in the US and UK and later (50-60) in Italy and Greece.
- After divorce, happiness hits rock bottom around the time of divorce then returns to baseline within about two years.
- Simple interventions like exercise, walking in nature and social interaction meaningfully reduce stress and improve focus.
- People feel most attracted to a partner when they see them in an unexpected context or after time apart ('sparkling').