By Tali Sharot
How the brain drives influence
Subject
Themes
Understanding influence is a fundamental human challenge. Everyone seeks to affect others, whether teaching children, guiding patients, advising clients, or informing followers. Yet the people with the most important messages are not necessarily those with the largest impact. This work explores why some attempts to change minds succeed while others fail.
Understanding influence is a fundamental human challenge. Everyone seeks to affect others, whether teaching children, guiding patients, advising clients, or informing followers. Yet the people with the most important messages are not necessarily those with the largest impact. This work explores why…
Tali Sharot's work arrives at a critical juncture in neuroscience and behavioural psychology, synthesising decades of research into accessible frameworks whilst contributing original experimental findings. Published in 2017, The Influential Mind bridges academic neuroscience and popular science,…
Human brains process information through the lens of existing beliefs, creating a powerful filter that determines which data we accept and which we reject. Research demonstrates this consistently across domains. When forty-eight university students were shown fabricated studies about capital…
When powerful speakers address audiences, something remarkable occurs inside listeners' brains. Neural activity across different individuals begins ticking together, bursting and quieting simultaneously in the same brain regions. This synchronization extends beyond areas processing language and…
The human brain operates under a fundamental asymmetry: anticipating rewards triggers action while fearing losses promotes inaction. This insight emerged from a seemingly mundane problem. Medical staff sanitized their hands before entering patient rooms only ten percent of the time, despite…
The need for control runs so deep in human psychology that people value it even when exercising control provides no objective advantage. Research demonstrates this repeatedly. Participants consistently chose lotteries allowing them to select their own numbers over lotteries assigning numbers…
Humans exhibit an insatiable appetite for information, even when acquiring knowledge provides no practical advantage and sometimes causes harm. Research demonstrates this paradox repeatedly. Participants consistently chose to receive advance information about upcoming rewards or punishments despite…
People process information through the lens of existing beliefs, automatically accepting evidence that confirms preconceptions while rejecting contradictory data. This fundamental aspect of human cognition, known as confirmation bias, operates consistently across domains from politics to personal…
When President John F. Kennedy stood before thirty-five thousand people at Rice University in 1962, he faced a daunting task: convincing the nation to invest billions in landing humans on the moon, a feat with uncertain prospects for success. His seventeen-minute speech transformed public opinion…
Medical staff in intensive care units sanitized their hands only ten percent of the time despite surveillance cameras and warning signs about disease transmission. Threats about spreading infections failed completely. However, when researchers installed electronic boards providing immediate positive…
Humans value control so deeply that they willingly pay costs for it even when exercising choice provides no objective advantage. Participants consistently preferred lotteries allowing them to select numbers over equally rewarding options assigning numbers randomly, despite identical winning odds.…
Humans exhibit an insatiable drive for information, even when acquiring knowledge provides no practical advantage and sometimes causes harm. Participants consistently chose to receive advance information about upcoming rewards or punishments despite that information offering no ability to change…
Human beings possess an innate drive for control over their environment and circumstances. This fundamental need for agency shapes how people respond to influence attempts and determines whether they embrace or resist change. Research demonstrates that individuals experience greater motivation,…
Curiosity drives human learning and exploration, functioning as a fundamental motivational force that shapes how people acquire and process information. The brain treats curiosity as a need state similar to hunger or thirst, creating psychological tension that can only be resolved through discovery.…
Emotions spread between people through automatic, largely unconscious processes that shape behaviour, decisions, and beliefs. This phenomenon of emotional contagion operates through multiple channels, from facial expressions and vocal tones to posture and physiological synchronisation. Understanding…
Understanding how the brain processes information and responds to influence provides a foundation, but translating insights into effective practice requires integration and adaptation. The principles of influence operate interdependently rather than in isolation. Prior beliefs shape emotional…
By Tali Sharot
Subject
Themes
Understanding influence is a fundamental human challenge. Everyone seeks to affect others, whether teaching children, guiding patients, advising clients, or informing followers. Yet the people with the most important messages are not necessarily those with the largest impact. This work explores why some attempts to change minds succeed while others fail.