Nudge Wiki

Person

Tali Sharot

Guest (Episode 171); Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL

Researcher on influence, herd behavior, and memory, and author of The Influential Mind (named a best book of 2017 by Forbes, The Times, and Huffington Post). Not a direct guest on this episode — cited throughout as the source for its central research.

Ran a study at the Weizmann Institute finding that participants shown other people's (secretly falsified) answers about a documentary they'd all watched conformed to the wrong answer 70% of the time, with half retaining the false memory permanently even after the manipulation was revealed (see Sharot Documentary Memory-Conformity Study). Also ran a study in which 100 fasting Londoners were told (falsely) which foods were popular with other participants before choosing their own, finding 20% chose a food they had explicitly said they disliked (see Sharot Fasting-Londoners Food-Conformity Study). Makes the further point that even baby-naming trends likely reflect the same herd mechanism rather than pure individual preference.

Guest in Episode 171, promoting her book Look Again (co-authored with Cass Sunstein). Explains Habituation — why response to any constant stimulus, good or bad, fades over time — across food, relationships, physical discomfort, and mental health, and its counterpart, dishabituation, as a deliberate way to restore enjoyment (see Mac-and-Cheese Habituation Study, Song and Massage Pause-Enjoyment Studies, Vacation Happiness Peak and Anticipation Studies). Covers Hunt Allcott's Facebook-deactivation wellbeing study and a correlational study linking Facebook's university-by-university rollout to rising depressive episodes (see Alcott Facebook-Quitting Wellbeing Study, Gregari Facebook Rollout Depression-Correlation Study), the Illusory Truth Effect (repetition making both true and false claims feel more believable), and a closing tip that changing physical environment briefly boosts creativity (see Environment-Change Creativity Studies).

Returns a fourth time in Episode 187, on persuasion and argument specifically. Brain-imaging research finds people's brains measurably reduce encoding of information from a partner who disagrees with them, meaning persuasion should open with common ground rather than direct contradiction (see Common-Ground Agreeing-Partner Brain Study) — demonstrated by a UCLA study tripling vaccine-hesitant parents' willingness to vaccinate by emphasizing shared facts rather than disputing the autism claim directly (see UCLA Vaccine Common-Ground Study), and by Republicans donating more to an environmental charity when the appeal was reframed around patriotism (see Republican Climate-Donation Patriotism Study). Argues persuasion should give the other person felt agency rather than instruction (see Psychological Reactance), re-citing the Carnegie Confident-vs-Doubtful Persuasion Study and But You Are Free Compliance Studies, and cites the "Goo" pudding brand pitch as a real-world case combining both principles (see Goo Pudding Brand Agency-Pitch Case).

Re-cited in the 2024 year-end recap (Episode 218) for the mac-and-cheese habituation study's precise figures and two new anecdotes — her own habituation to Heathrow flight noise in her London flat, and her framing quote from economist Tibor Scitovsky ("pleasure results from incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desires") — see Mac-and-Cheese Habituation Study.

Discussed in

  • Episode 165 — 165-is-mass-hysteria-more-common-than-you-think
  • Episode 171 — 171-life-lessons-from-a-world-leading-neuroscientist
  • Episode 187 — 187-how-to-win-any-argument-according-to-a-neuroscientist
  • Episode 218 — 218-the-best-of-nudge-in-2024 (mac-and-cheese study re-cited with precise figures)

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