Three ingredients to doing what’s good for yourself:
- Social incentives,
- immediate rewards, and
- progress monitoring.
Are we in control of our decision?
Optimism Bias
Optimism bias is a cognitive illusion that Dr Tali Sharot has been studying in her lab, and 80 percent of us have it.
It’s our tendency to overestimate our likelihood of experiencing good events in our lives and underestimate our likelihood of experiencing bad events.
In other words, we’re more optimistic than realistic, but we are oblivious to the fact.
Dr. Tali Sharot is a neuroscientist at University College London and the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a faculty member of the department of Experimental Psychology, a Wellcome Trust Fellow, and currently a visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on how emotion, motivation, and social factors influence our expectations, decisions, and memories.
Featured Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
