We are constantly flooded with information (e.g. via the Web, advertising, colleagues, and friends) that helps us form predictions about the future and make decisions. Classic theories in psychology, economics and machine learning all implicitly assume that beliefs are adjusted in a similar manner in response to desirable and undesirable information. In this talk I will provide evidence challenging these assumptions. I will show that while people incorporate good news into their existing beliefs in a normative manner, they display an aversion to incorporating bad news. This asymmetry in how we incorporate information can have important societal implications including the generation of financial market bubbles and ill preparedness in the face of natural disasters. However, we find that the asymmetry is not set in stone, but rather fluctuates in response to threats in the environment, in a way that may be adaptive. Using a combination of fMRI, TMS and DTI we characterise the neural system supporting this asymmetry and show that changes in this circuit are related to individual differences in behaviour and mental health, with more balanced coding of information observed in depression and middle age.
Dr Tali Sharot is an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology at University College London. She received her Ph.D in psychology and neuroscience from New York University. Dr. Sharot is known for her research on the neural basis of emotion, decision making and optimism.
Dr. Sharot investigates how motivation and emotion determine our expectations of the future, our everyday decisions, our memories and our ability to learn. By understanding the brain mechanisms that mediate these effects her aim is to identify ways to encourage behavioural changes that enhance well-being. She is interested in questions such as when and how do other people influence our decisions and judgments? Why do we process information in a biased manner? When, how, and why do people deceive themselves? How do these processes go awry in depression?
Sharot was one of the presenters on Dara Ó Briain’s Science Club as well as a speaker at TED2012. She is a Wellcome Trust Fellow, a Fellow of the Forum of European Philosophy and previously a British Academy postdoctoral fellow. Her book “The Optimism Bias” won the British Psychological Society Book award for 2014. She has been listed as one of fifty scientists alive today who “are making a difference (or on their way to) by improving our lives through research and new discoveries”.
