It's kind of scary that we
use our minds every second of every day, but few of us understand exactly how
it functions. Even psychologists and neuroscientists are often stumped by why
we think and behave the way we do.
Some of those researchers
have appeared on the TED stage to talk about the questions that keep them up at
night. The following five talks -on topics like decision-making, happiness and
our concept of time -are some of the most thoughtprovoking in TED's collection.
Tali Sharot
cognitive neuroscientist
Your inherent bias toward optimism is a double-edged sword.
Sha rot, a long wit h her
colleagues, was able to reduce people's optimism by controlling activity in
certain areas of their brains. Sharot says in her talk that people
underestimate the likelihood of bad things like cancer happening to them, so
they're less likely to take precautions like scheduling medical checkups, etc.
On the other hand, Sharot says, optimism enhances our well-being because it
acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So how do you reconci le t
hose t wo v i e w p oi n t s ? “ We would like to protect ourselves from the
dangers of optimism, but at the same time remain hopeful,“ Sharot says. “The
key here really is knowledge.“
Dan Ariely
Dan Ariely behavioural
economist You have less control over your own decision than you think. than you
think.
Most of us believe we're
totall in control of our own decisions. But as Ariely explains in his talk,
we're incredibly susceptible to outside influences.
Using examples from
medicine and online dating, Ariely proves that traditional economics can't
fully explain irrational human behaviour -and that's where behavioural
economics comes in. He says, “I think that if we understood our cognitive
limitations in the same way we understand our physical limitations ...we could
design a better world.“
Sheena Iyengar
psycho-economist The
freedom to choose is not always empowering.
Iyengar's talk illuminates how
ou r beliefs about choice a re shaped by our cultural back grounds. “It is a
mistake to assume that every one thrives under the pressure of choosing alone,“
she says.
Iyen ga r de bunks the idea
that the more choic es you h ave, t he b et t er de ci sion s you make. In
fact, she says, PIC: GETTY IMAGES when you give people 10 or more options, they
tend to make poorer decisions in areas like healthcare and investing.
Ultimately, Iyengar says it's about accepting that constraint can in some
contexts be more liberating than freedom.
Dan Gilbert
psychologist, happiness
expert You have no idea what will make you happy in 10 years.
Ask people how much they'd
pay to see their favourite musical artist play a concert in 10 years and
they'll say about $129. Ask them how much they'd pay to see their favourite
artist from 10 years ago play today, and they'll say about $80.
For Gilbert, a Harvard
psychologist, this disparity ref lects our fundamental misunderstanding of how
much our values and personalities change over the course of time. In his talk,
Gilbert explains that we constantly think we're done growing -we think our
favourite artist today will still be our favourite in 10 years.
Philip Zimbardo
psychologist Your
perspective of time is a major factor in your happiness.
Zimbardo, a psychologist,
known for conducting the `Stanford prison experiment', is also fascinated by
people's time perspective, or how we divide our experience into different
temporal categories.
In his talk, Zimbardo says
that people differ in how much they value past, present and future experiences.
He suggests that our unconscious bias toward a particular time zone and toward
positive or negative information influences every decision we make .
Source | Economic Times | 5 August 2015
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