Scroll down to access news articles featuring our research. You can also access selected videos, podcasts and links to TV and movies featuring our lab members.
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Press
- How our Desires Shape Our Beliefs, The Guardian (August 27, 2017) PDF VERSION
- The Truth Is, Lying Might Not Be So Bad, KUOW (March 28, 2017) PDF VERSION
- Why Piling On Facts May Not Help In The Battle Against Fake News, KRCC (March 14, 2017) PDF VERSION
- Lying gets easier on the brain the more you do it, Quartz (March 9, 2017) PDF VERSION
- Optimism v pessimism in 2017: the comedian and the psychologist debate, The Guardian (January 2, 2017) PDF VERSION
- Psychological research that helps explain the election, The New Yorker (December 25, 2016) PDF VERSION
- 11 TED Talks that show how weird the human mind really is , Science Alert (December 19, 2016) PDF VERSION
- How lying changes your brain in just a short period of time, Huffington Post (October 26, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Little white lies the start of ‘slippery slope’, scientists find, The Australian
- Liars in Making Small lies tune your brain to be dishonest, The Times of India (October 26, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Lies breed lies: Brain may get desensitized to dishonesty, Fox News (October 26, 2016) PDF VERSION
- How little lies lead to bigger lies, CBS News (October 25, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Lying Appears to Make It Easier to Tell More Lies, Vice (October 25, 2016) PDF VERSION
- The Fascinating Reason Why Liars Keep On Lying, Huffington Post (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Why Big Liars Often Start Out as Small Ones, New York Times (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- From porkies to whoppers: over time lies may desensitise brain to dishonesty, The Guardian (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Why being dishonest is a slippery slope, The Conversation (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Lying feels bad at first but our brains soon adapt to deceiving, New Scientist (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- The more we lie, the easier it is for our brains to be increasingly more deceitful, Wired (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Slippery slope: Study finds little lies lead to bigger ones, Associated Press (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- From Fibs to Fraud: Why Lying Is a Slippery Slope, Discover Magazine (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Little white lies make it easier to go on and tell big whoppers, The Telegraph (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Whenever you lie, your brain adjusts to make telling bigger whoppers study finds, The Independent (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Neuroscientists show how tiny fibs snowball into big lies, LA Times (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Slipper Slope: Study finds little lies lead to bigger ones, San Francisco Chronicle (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Brain study shows how small lies grow into whoppers, Stat (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Lying may be your brain’s fault, honestly, CNN (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Telling white lies could encourage people to tell bigger fibs in the future, The Sunday Express (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Little white lies are not as innocent as you think: over time, small fibs may desensitize our brains to dishonesty, The Daily Mail (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Little white lies help the brain prepare for telling whopping fibs, study reveals, The Mirror (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Lies Breed Lies: Brain May Grow Desensitized to Dishonesty, Live Science (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- How Small Fibs Lead To Big Lies, NPR (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Telling a lie makes way for the brain to keep lying, PBS (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- How do politicians get so comfortable with lying? One theory: practice, Vox (October 24, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Positive thinking can make you too lazy to meet your goals, BBC – Capital (October 12, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Genomes, good news, and you, MIT News (September 8, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Why facts don’t unify us, NY Times (September 2, 2016) PDF VERSION
- China is the only country that’s remotely optimistic about the future, Tech Insider (July 5, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Recognizing the Role of Optimism Bias in Case Evaluation, Lexology (June 1, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Why do we ignore obvious dangers?, Observer (May 26, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Excessive Optimism Played a Big Role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster, Fox News (May 4, 2016) PDF VERSION
- 6 TED Talks You Should Watch To Up Your Mindset, Forbes (March 30, 2016) PDF VERSION
- Why we’re hard-wired for hope, Arab News (March 2, 2016) PDF VERSION
- 50 Must-Read Psychology Books, Sparring Mind (October 10, 2015) PDF VERSION
- Risk Factor: The Happy Pill, Financial Chronicle (August 07, 2015) PDF VERSION
- 9 TED Talks that will teach you how your mind works, Business Insider (July 20, 2015) PDF VERSION
- Here’s the Root of Our Financial Problems, Time Magazine (July 6, 2015) PDF VERSION
- 7 Lessons on How to Hack Your Own Brain, Time Magazine (July 1, 2015) PDF VERSION
- Motley Fool: Nine thoughts about investing and the economy, Sydney Morning Herald (February 3, 2015) PDF VERSION
- The Economic Power of Positive Thinking, Bloomberg Buisnessweek (February 2, 2015) PDF VERSION
- Planning for optimism bias in Utah, Herald (January 06, 2015) PDF VERSION
- The Resilient Person’s DNA, Forbes (June 04, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Wired Health: how do we harness self-monitored health data, Medical News Today (April 30, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Positivity not scaremongering could help you lose weight, Wired (April 29, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Positive thinking can trip into costly delusion, HeraldNet (April 12, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Want A Better Life? Be An Optimist – With a Twist, Forbes (March 17, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Cyber Security Risk: Perception vs. Reality in Corporate America, Wired (March 10, 2014) PDF VERSION
- Would you rather have time or money?, Forbes (December 20, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Psychology: Good and bad news on the adolescent brain, Nature (October 30, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Why We Make Bad Decisions, New York Times (October 19, 2013) PDF VERSION
- In Defence of Brain Rotting Cliches and Scientific Myths, The Guardian (October 15, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Young People Resist Bad News, Nature (September 26, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Youngsters Learn More From Good News Than Dire Warnings, Science World Report (September 22, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Even When Told True Risks, Kids Often Misjudge Them, NPR (September 10, 2013) PDF VERSION
- New Play Development: Death by Talkback, Huffington Post (March 25, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Your Child’s Fat, Mine’s Fine: Rose-Colored Glasses and the Obesity Epidemic, National Public Radio Health News (March 4, 2013) PDF VERSION
- January’s Stock Temptation, New York Times (January 1, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Why humans look on the bright side, Sydney Morning Herald (January 1, 2013) PDF VERSION
- Optimism bias: Why the young and the old tend to look on the bright side, Washington Post (December 31, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Resolutions: So Irresistible, So Hard to Keep, Wall Street Journal (December 17, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Why We’re Born Optimists, and Why That’s Good, The Atlantic (December 13, 2012) PDF VERSION
- How happiness changes with age, BBC (December 4, 2012) PDF VERSION
- How the brain filters bad news, The Guardian (September 25, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Removing the Optimism Bias, The Scientist (September 24, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Researchers identify brain region that generates optimism bias, Wired(September 26, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Optimistic Investors need to get real, FT (August 24 2012) PDF VERSION
- Why we fool ourselves into optimism, CNN (June 27, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Neural Responses Reveal Our Optimistic Bent, Scientific American (April 10, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Why your brain always looks on the bright side, Daily Mail (Jan 06, 2012) PDF VERSION
- The optimism bias: reasons to be cheerful (interview), The Guardian (Jan 1, 2012) PDF VERSION
- The optimism bias (book extract), The Guardian (Jan 1, 2012) PDF VERSION
- Brain Imaging Reveals Why Optimists Are The Way They Are, Huffington Post(Oct 11, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Brain ‘rejects negative thoughts’, BBC (Oct 9, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Blame ‘Faulty’ Frontal Lobe Function for Undying Optimism in Face of Reality, Science Daily (Oct 9, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Optimism is (still) in, Forbes (July 13, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Cheer up, you’re really an optimist, Toronto Star (July 8, 2011) PDF VERSION
- The Human Brain: Optimism Bias, Examiner (July 7, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Illusions and reality, Time (June 6, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Morning Links: Squid Watch, The Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2011) PDF VERSION
- The Optimism Bias, TIME magazine (May 28, 2011) PDF VERSION
- Major Delusions, New York Times (May 14, 2011) PDF VERSION
- The ups of being down, The Sunday Times (July, 2009)
- Except in one career, our brains seem built for optimism, The Wall Street Journal(Nov 9, 2007) PDF VERSION
- Optimism lights up a brain part, LA Times (Oct 29, 2007) PDF VERSION
- This is Your Brain on Optimism, Newsweek (Oct 24, 2007) PDF VERSION
- Brain regions responsible for optimism located, Reuters (Oct 24, 2007) PDF VERSION
- Source of ‘optimism’ found in the brain, NewScientist (Oct 24, 2007) PDF VERSION
- Dopamine levels in brain ‘influence decision making’, BBC News (Jan 8, 2010) PDF VERSION
- Can Dopamine Make Your Future Look Brighter?, Time Magazine (Nov 27, 2009) PDF VERSION
- Scientist identify brain regions that help us make choices, The Telegraph (Mar 27, 2009) PDF VERSION
- Thanks for the memories, PsychPost (1 July, 2011) PDF VERSION
- 9/11 memroies reveal how flashbulb memories are made in the brain, Discover Magazine (14 Oct, 2008) PDF VERSION
- Report Links 9/11 Memories to Proximity, Washington Post (Dec 18, 2006) (The Associated Press) PDF VERSION
Videos (selected)
*best viewed in Chrome/Firefox
Optimal Optimism - animated short movie
WIRED Health
TED talk
RSA talk
Redes documentary on optimism (in English)
Redes documentary on optimism (in Spanish)
Interview with Tali Sharot
Laughing in the face of reality
Documentaries and TV
- The One Show (BBC, 2016)
- Power Lunch (CNBC, 2015)
- The Today Show (NBC, 2015)
- Redesign My Brain (ABC, 2015)
- Dishonesty – The Truth About Lies (CNBC & Salty Productions, 2015)
- How to be happy (RTÉ One, 2014)
- Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. Reality Check: Is our Universe Real? Season 4, E8 (The Science Channel, 2013)
- Israel Night News (2013)
- Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. What Makes Us Who We Are? Season 3, E4 (The Science Channel, 2012)
- Horizon: Out of Control (BBC2, 2012)
- Dara O Briain’s Science Club, Episode 1: Reproduction (BBC, 2012)
- Dara O Briain’s Science Club, Episode 3: Extinction (BBC, 2012)
- Dara O Briain’s Science Club, Episode 4: Space (BBC, 2012)
- Dara O Briain’s Science Club, Episode 5: Brain (BBC, 2012)
- Dara O Briain’s Science Club, Episode 6: Music (BBC, 2013)
- Redes, (RTVE, 2012)
- The Daily Rundown (2011)
Podcasts (selected)
- The Truth Is, Lying Might Not Be So Bad NPR, Morning Edition, March 28th 2017.
- I’m Right, You’re Wrong NPR, The Hidden Brain, March 14th 2017.
- Are we natural optimists? NPR, TED Radio Hour, May 6th 2016.
- Optimism – Our Enemy BBC Radio 4, April 2nd 2016.
- Your Child’s Fat, Mine’s Fine: Rose Colored Glasses and the Obesity Academic NPR, Health News, March 4th 2013.
- Listen to a podcast of Tali Sharot talking about the Optimism Bias recorded at The RSA, London, January 19th 2012.
- The Optimism Bias Louisa Jewell Blog, June 24th 2011.
- Tali Sharot on optimism, podcast recorded at The Wellcome Collection, London.
