Prof Tali Sharot | The Value of Beliefs: From Theory to Practice

This seminar is free to attend and is open to all, both within and outside the University. Attendance is possible both in-person and on Zoom, details of Zoom registration and physical location can be found above.

We are delighted to announce that the Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH) will welcome Prof Tali Sharot, the Director of the Affective Brain Lab and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology and the Max Planck UCL  Centre for Computational Psychiatry at UCL and on the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, to present a hybrid CHBH Seminar, taking place on the date and time above. Her full biography can be found below.

CHBH Event Host

Dr Arkady Konovalov

Abstract

In this talk I will present our recent research on how and why people form particular beliefs. I will propose that the utility of a belief is derived from the potential outcomes associated with holding it. Outcomes can be internal (e.g., positive/negative feelings) or external (e.g., material gain/loss), and only some are dependent on belief accuracy. We show that belief change occurs when the potential outcomes of holding it alters, for example when moving from a safe environment to a threatening environment. Our findings yield predictions about how belief formation alters as a function of mental health. We test these predictions using a linguistic analysis of participants’ web searches ‘in the wild’ to quantify the affective properties of information they consume and relate those to reported psychiatric symptoms. Finally, I will present a study in which we used our framework to alter the incentive structure of social media platforms to reduce the spread of misinformation and improve belief accuracy.

Speaker Biography

 Tali Sharot is the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology and The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry at University College London and on the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. Sharot holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from Tel Aviv University and a PhD from New York University. Currently, Sharot is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, Chief Section Editor (neuroscience) for Science Advances and President of the Society of Neuroeconmics. Sharot’s research integrates neuroscience behavioral economics and psychology to study how emotion and motivation influences people’s beliefs, decisions and social interactions. Prof. Sharot’s award winning books - The Optimism Bias (2011) and The Influential Mind (2017) – have been praised by outlets including the NYT, Times, Forbes and more. In addition to her academic role, Sharot has served as a consultant for global companies and government projects, as well as on the board of several companies. Her two TED talks have been viewed more than 17 million times total. She has written multiple Op-Eds for the NYT, Time, Guardian, Washington Post, CNN and others.