GV Art & Mind Symposium 12: Tali Sharot

 

The science of optimism – why are humans prone to hold unrealistic expectations? Evidence from psychology and neuroscience’. 

11 September 2012

Dr Tali Sharot

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/affective-brain/people/tali_sharot

Tali is the author of a splendid book ‘The Optimism Bias: A tour of the irrationally positive brain’, in which she attempts to answer the question ‘What is it about our brains that makes us overestimate the positive?’ In her own work she is interested in how our natural optimism actually shapes what we remember, and her interesting range of papers encompasses behavioural research (how likely are we to misremember major events) as well as medical findings – like searching for the places in the brain where optimism lives.  

Symposium guests: