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Title details for The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot - Available

The Optimism Bias

A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain

by Tali Sharot
ebook
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Psychologists have long been aware that most people maintain an irrationally positive outlook on life—but why? Turns out, we might be hardwired that way.
In this absorbing exploration, Tali Sharot—one of the most innovative neuroscientists at work today—demonstrates that optimism may be crucial to human existence. The Optimism Bias explores how the brain generates hope and what happens when it fails; how the brains of optimists and pessimists differ; why we are terrible at predicting what will make us happy; how emotions strengthen our ability to recollect; how anticipation and dread affect us; how our optimistic illusions affect our financial, professional, and emotional decisions; and more.
 
Drawing on cutting-edge science, The Optimism Bias provides us with startling new insight into the workings of the brain and the major role that optimism plays in determining how we live our lives.

  • Creators

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  • Release date

    June 14, 2011

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    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9780307379832

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780307379832

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780307379832
      • File size: 2055 KB

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    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

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  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      May 1, 2011

      Our mind deceives us by parking rose-colored glasses on our nose, writes neuroscientist Sharot, but only with the best of intentions.

      In this lively, conversational book, the author puts on firm footing what many of us have sensed all along—that we are, by and large, a pretty optimistic bunch. Indeed, "optimism may be so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our most complex organ, the brain." So prevalent are these optimistic tendencies that they compose a bias, a steady inclination to overestimate the likelihood of encountering more positive events in the future than negative ones. The optimism bias protects us from being stymied by the inevitable tribulations of everyday life, or to perceive that our options are limited in some manner; it helps us relax, improves our health and motivates us to act. Sharot is a friendly writer—her book brims with anecdotes and scientific studies that attest to optimism's gentling hand—though no empty smiley face: There is plenty in these pages about how we cope with root canals and chemotherapy, disappointment and dread. Sharot presents this evolutionary scenario: "an ability to imagine the future had to develop side by side with positive biases. The knowledge of death had to emerge at the same time as its irrational denial...It is this coupling—conscious prospection and optimism—that underlies the extraordinary achievements of the human species." Otherwise, considering the future would be paralyzing. The author circulates through much of the optimism/pessimism map, touching down on the importance of control, relativity and anticipation. What is most stunning, however, are the ways in which optimism not only evokes new behavior in the individual (optimistic heart-attack victim modeling healthy new behavior), but helps deliver the irrationally expected goods (Joe Namath guaranteeing victory in Super Bowl III).

      A well-told, heartening report from neuroscience's front lines.

       

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • Booklist

      June 1, 2011
      Why is it that many Americans swear to the veracity of their memories of 9/11, unaware that those memories are riddled with inaccuracies? In investigating that question, Sharot found herself exploring the much more general and pervasive phenomenon of groundless mental confidence. Whether defying statistical odds in (re)marriage, endorsing a recklessly bold coach's prediction of victory, or clinging to hope in the face of a grim cancer diagnosis, humans manifest optimism that resists rational explanation. Yet from the latest neurological research, Sharot adduces evidence that such irrationality actually improves job performance and enhances well-being. Indeed, further probing into the dynamics of optimism identifies the capacity to imagine a promising future as a characteristic unique to Homo sapiens. This is a capacity laced with risks, however, as Sharot shows by examining the fates of optimists who can no longer resist reality-defying fantasies. Still, most readers will turn the last page not only buoyed by hope but also aware of the sources and benefits of that hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

    • Kirkus

      May 1, 2011

      Our mind deceives us by parking rose-colored glasses on our nose, writes neuroscientist Sharot, but only with the best of intentions.

      In this lively, conversational book, the author puts on firm footing what many of us have sensed all along--that we are, by and large, a pretty optimistic bunch. Indeed, "optimism may be so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our most complex organ, the brain." So prevalent are these optimistic tendencies that they compose a bias, a steady inclination to overestimate the likelihood of encountering more positive events in the future than negative ones. The optimism bias protects us from being stymied by the inevitable tribulations of everyday life, or to perceive that our options are limited in some manner; it helps us relax, improves our health and motivates us to act. Sharot is a friendly writer--her book brims with anecdotes and scientific studies that attest to optimism's gentling hand--though no empty smiley face: There is plenty in these pages about how we cope with root canals and chemotherapy, disappointment and dread. Sharot presents this evolutionary scenario: "an ability to imagine the future had to develop side by side with positive biases. The knowledge of death had to emerge at the same time as its irrational denial...It is this coupling--conscious prospection and optimism--that underlies the extraordinary achievements of the human species." Otherwise, considering the future would be paralyzing. The author circulates through much of the optimism/pessimism map, touching down on the importance of control, relativity and anticipation. What is most stunning, however, are the ways in which optimism not only evokes new behavior in the individual (optimistic heart-attack victim modeling healthy new behavior), but helps deliver the irrationally expected goods (Joe Namath guaranteeing victory in Super Bowl III).

      A well-told, heartening report from neuroscience's front lines.

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • BookPage
      Most of us know that eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate. But what about our own memories? Especially our recollections of emotionally charged events—so-called “flashbulb memories”? We’re pretty sure that they’re vividly accurate, even when they aren’t.Why that is is just one of a complex of psychological phenomena Tali Sharot explores in her illuminating and vastly entertaining first book, The Optimism Bias. Sharot, a researcher in neuropsychology at the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London, makes two major claims here: Most of us are optimistic, and we are optimistic because our brains have evolved to make us so. Why? Because the optimistic belief that we are all slightly better than the average “makes health and progress more likely,” and that set of mild illusions has helped humans to survive and progress. “Optimism,” Sharot writes, “may be so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our most complex organ, the brain.”Such observations could smack of psychobabble, except for the fact that Sharot and colleagues have produced fascinating brain imaging experiments and data that support her assertions. You can’t read this book and disagree that, as Sharot writes, “the human brain . . . is extremely efficient at turning lead into gold.”Sharot subtitles her book “A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain.” “Tour” is a good description, as she explores facets of our ability to delude ourselves, taking us on a magical mystery tour of our perceptions, rather than making a step-by-step argument. “Tour” also evokes the pleasure Sharot gives us in her surprising, research-based observations (“Political stability is one of the nine strongest indicators of a nation’s well-being, and human rights is one of the two strongest.”), her use of contemporary examples (“from the dark skies of Sham el-Sheikh to the crowded lockers of the Los Angeles Lakers”) and her pleasing sense of humor (discussing experiments with mice, for example, she acknowledges that humans are quite different but notes “like humans, however, these mammals are frequently found in the kitchen in the middle of the night, searching for leftovers”).Sharot also acknowledges that optimism, at least extreme optimism, has its downside—sometimes leading to risky, life-threatening behavior. So while she doesn’t directly say it, her book certainly suggests that we need a little humility to accompany our certainties. A little—but not too much.

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