The Optimism Bias [Format Kindle]
Author: Tali Sharot | Language: English | ISBN: B005RZB6VU | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Extrait
Table of Contents
Prologue: A Glass Forever Half Full?
1. Which Way Is Up? Illusions of the Human Brain
2. Are Animals Stuck in Time? The Evolution of Prospection
3. Is Optimism a Self- Fulfi lling Prophecy? How the Mind Transforms Predictions into Reality
4. What Do Barack Obama and Shirley Temple Have in Common? When Private Optimism Meets Public Despair
5. Can You Predict What Will Make You Happy? The Unexpected Ingredient for Well- being
6. Crocuses Popping Up Through the Snow? When Things Go Wrong: Depression, Interpretation,
and Genes
7. Why Is Friday Better Than Sunday? The Value of Anticipation and the Cost of Dread
8. Why Do Things Seem Better After We Choose Them? The Mind’s Journey from Expectation to Choice and Back
9. Are Memories of 9/11 as Accurate as They Seem? How Emotion Changes Our Past
10. Why Is Being a Cancer Survivor Better Than Winning the Tour de France? How the Brain Turns Lead into Gold
11. A Dark Side to Optimism? From World War II to the Credit Crunch—Underestimating Risk Is Like Drinking Red Wine
Epilogue: A Beautiful Mademoiselle or a Sad Old Lady? From Prediction to Perception to Action
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
From the Hardcover edition.
Revue de presse
“Fascinating. . . . Even if you’re a dedicated cynic, you might be surprised to learn that your brain is wearing rose-colored glasses, whether you like it or not.”
—NPR
“What a treat. A charming, engaging and accessible book written by a scientist who knows how to tell a story.”
—Richard Thaler, author of Nudge
“An insightful, Oliver Sacks-y first book.”
—The Village Voice
“Very enjoyable, highly original and packed with eye-opening insight, this is a beautifully written book that really brings psychology alive.”
—Simon Baron-Cohen, author of The Science of Evil
“Offers evolutionary, neurological, and even slightly philosophical reasons for optimism. . . . A book I’d suggest to anyone.”
—Terry Waghorn, Forbes
“If you read her story, you’ll get a better grip on how we function in it. I’m optimistic about that.”
—Richard Stengel, Time
“Once I started reading The Optimism Bias, I could not put it down.”
—Louisa Jewell, Positive Psychology News Daily
“An intelligently written look into why most people take an optimistic view of life. . . . [A] fascinating trip into why we prefer to remain hopeful about our future and ourselves.”
—New York Journal of Books
“With rare talent Sharot takes us on an unforgettable tour of the hopes, traps and tricks of our brains. . . . A must-read.”
—David Eagleman, author of Incognito
“A fascinating yet accessible exploration of how and why our brains construct a positive outlook on life.”
—BrainPickings.org
“Lively, conversational. . . . A well-told, heartening report from neuroscience’s front lines.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Most readers will turn to the last page not only buoyed by hope but also aware of the sources and benefits of that hope.”
—Booklist
“Fascinating and fun to read. . . . Provides lucid accounts of [Sharot’s] often ingenious experiments.”
—BBC Focus Magazine
Books with free ebook downloads available The Optimism Bias
Détails sur le produit
- Format : Format Kindle
- Taille du fichier : 579 KB
- Nombre de pages de l'édition imprimée : 274 pages
- Pagination - ISBN de l'édition imprimée de référence : 0307473511
- Editeur : Robinson (11 janvier 2012)
- Vendu par : Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Langue : Anglais
- ASIN: B005RZB6VU
- Synthèse vocale : Activée
- Moyenne des commentaires client : Soyez la première personne à écrire un commentaire sur cet article
- Classement des meilleures ventes d'Amazon: n°256.919 dans la Boutique Kindle (Voir le Top 100 dans la Boutique Kindle)
Cognitive science or psychology and neuroscience really began in earnest in the 1950's. Artificial intelligence was an early throw-off of this work. Sixty years later, the discipline and sub-disciplines have come into their own. Much of the formative work for the next half-century will come from the tremendous advances underway. Here is a book that will bring you "up close and personal" into this world. Personal meaning involving you yourself.Par Aceto
Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist by trade, was studying the effects of trauma on memory. Her first pronouncement is that exceptionally emotional events cause us to believe that we have flawlessly accurate recollections of them -- "flash-bulb" memories as they are termed; and they are largely a sham we foist on ourselves.
The Optimism Bias is not a self-help book. It is not "The Power of Positive Thinking". It is not Sun Zu goes to Wall Street, and not pop-psychology. It is a non-technical survey of current concepts in neuroscience. Dr. Sharot does not dumb it down, rather she seats the concepts with everyday examples to give us a solid understanding of how our neural system manifests itself in our everyday thoughts and behavior. People with a scientific/medical/technical background may miss the lack of complete technical discussion. I might have taken one star if I were concerned with only their perspective. But not two stars since the tour and terminology are still solid science that I found informative and helpful. For the general intelligent reading public, I stick with five.
This book will give you knowledge of yourself and those around you to the point of actually using this information to improve your life. Not a series of prescriptions or proscriptions, but a calm and level understanding of how we think and feel and act which can allow you to have more and better control of yourself. Knowledge here is power.
Want to get more comfortable with the hippocampus? Dig right in. How do anti-depressants work? Just what do they do? Come on in and get a clue. Dr. Sharot has good bedside manner when it come to a clear and interesting writing style. She is handy at anticipating our questions as well as where we may be likely to misinterpret, or to wrongly infer.
Dr. Sharot's hypothesis we have evolved this flash-bulb distortion (as part of a much larger proposition) of memory as part of a system we need to imagine the future. Imagining the future is part of our unconscious survival strategy. What a perverse notion, that we need to dupe ourselves into marching on. Remember the old days of warfare when two opposing armies lined up in file three ranks and more deep? That front line was called The Forlorn Hope.
But I will give you a better example of a different sort. I saw a study that looked for attributes or characteristics of women with successful children (read happy, capable and resilient, not big-shots) while pregnant. One of the strongest predictors by far, after you except not taking drugs, is their inclination to imagine their unborn child as a well developing young adult. She could envision her baby to be already sturdy and happy in the world, growing into a good place in the world. On the other hand, children who were cripplingly maladjusted to getting on had in common a mother that was unable to make such a projection into the future. This stuff is clinical, not judgmental, just as Dr. Sharot's approach always is. She is neither moralist nor evangelist. She shows us a few new things ourselves, and about the world we build for ourselves and for each other.
Here is the crux: We distort the past, in part because past and future notions share the same neural highway, but also because we need so many bits of the past to cobble together what we want or need the future to be. This enterprise is executed on grand and minuscule levels. We evolved to meet an uncertain future on the most hopeful terms, not the most effective, accurate or prudent ones.
She gives a good survey of important work done in recent times. She also shows her own research. For example, she conducted an experiment where subjects were asked to imagine a specified event. Dr. Sharot designed the experiment such that the event was innocuous, a haircut or a ride on one of the New York City ferries. Instead of an account of these events, she got fanciful embellishments of the imaginations' work. Mundane was made fantastic.
Dr. Sharot lays a heavy hand on the line. Optimistic bias is a significant contributor to the survival of the species and is "hardwired", in the argot of cognitive scientists, in the brain. Quotidian thought swims in a small sea of unconscious, irrational optimism. Baseline positive people are 50:33 over negative and neutral. She is showing us we are singing the songs from West Side Story, i.e. "Something's Coming" and "Tonight". But we have also seen the end. She shows us all sides to our puzzle. No pretension to completeness, but a reassuring thoroughness she delivers.
Important to all of this exploration is how you know what you think you might know. Here again, Dr, Sharot is putting her back into it. She knows her numbers and likes to keep count of everything. So she counts our events, our incidences of positive bias. She measures how we consistently overrate our own choices and our own precious abilities. Yet she has no agenda to tear anybody down. No blaming, no axes or cross-hairs, her stories are insightful, instructive and rather disarming.
We are terrible at introspection. Plenty of documentation here. But what surprised me was the work done by a bunch of Smarty-Pants Swedes who ran many trials where they handed out pairs of photographs asking the subjects to choose the more attractive. Then they pulled the old switcheroo and handed them back the picture NOT chosen. Whereupon 75% did not notice. They further went on to argue from the formerly rejected photo why this was indeed the attractive one.
Take this voyage within and do it leisurely. See yourself and the rest of us in many new ways. Understand because you want to, and then you can make it work for you.
- Publié sur Amazon.com
This book was like a college lecture that starts out with an exciting premise and a great first 15 minutes, but pretty soon starts to get drawn out and tiring. Tali Sharot starts the book by explaining the fascinating Optimism Bias, how the human brain seems wired into optimism. She gives countless examples of how even when presented with what should be a boring proposition like "describe a haircut", people will turn it into, "I have grown my hair for weeks so I can donate it to Locks of Love." It's just our nature.Par Joel Avrunin
She proceeds to discuss mental time travel and whether animals can think of a past and a future. Much of the discussion is related to how optimism developped in our brains and reasons why. As the book went on, I found myself starting to skim. It was an involuntary action, but I just could not stay with the author in her writing. Another reviewer said it felt like an article blown up to book length, and I would agree. I feel she has some great points to be made in this book, but the treatment is too long and short on solid information for the length of the book.
Worth reading or skimming once for a few key pieces of information, but I likely won't return to it.
- Publié sur Amazon.com
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