Tali SharotBesprekingen

In this book seven critical factors that impact how we make personal decisions or how well we succeed in our attempt to influence others are discussed. They are prior beliefs, emotion, incentives, agency (control), curiosity, state of mind, and other people. These factors are clearly presented. I did not see it as showing me how to manipulate others to see things my way. It seemed to be more of a guide to awareness of influences on my own thinking and an encouragement to present my thoughts in a way that others might see them clearly. In a nutshell it seems to be an aid in handling the distortions to clear observation and thinking by understanding what pulls and pushes us along the way. The author has done a great job in presenting the material for a general audience.

Tali Sharot’s The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others is an enlightening examination of the nature of influence. The author explores eight different social drivers that affect how the brain functions. Neuroscientist Sharot’s presentation of the research in behavioral science appealed to me. The most current and engaging chapters for me were the ones on emotion and curiosity. I enjoyed Sharot’s writing style, as well as her interesting examples. I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about how people are influenced.

The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot is an excellent book delving into the brain mind connection and how we influence people and persuade them. The science based research explains how we miss opportunities to influence people and the difficulty we have with changing our attitudes. Sharot explores this nature of influence. She professes the role that emotion plays in influence and how curiosity figures in the mix. Sharot is a leading researcher and author of the book The Optimism Bias. This book is a well research based book into this subject of our power to change others. I found it to be very interesting and well worth the time spent reading.

I got an advance reader's edition of this from the publisher Henry Holt & CO through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers. I'd read Ms. Sharot's The Optimism Bias five years ago when I had just started a year-long management program and liked what she wrote, so requested the opportunity to read this. Even though this is an advance copy, and I quote from it below, I don't think there will be substantial changes from the final publication.

"You and I share a role." - That's the opening line of the Prologue (in the copy I got), and Ms. Sharot nearly derailed herself with me almost immediately because the first line in the second paragraph was "This duty we all share is to affect others." I was puzzled as to how a "role" became a "duty". I also had a hard time with a small point in her Prologue where she related how a campaign candidate (an expert in fear-mongering) "was affecting [her] thoughts." Affecting is not influencing. But...it is captious of me to take issue with semantics in just the opener...

The eight major divisions in her book treat different ways in which our minds are influenced and how they resist influence. (I thought her subtitles describe more of the story. In "Does Evidence Change Belief (Priors) The Power of Confirmation and the Weakness of Data", she discusses the challenge of overcoming confirmation bias - the prior condition. Humans tend to look for agreement with established views, taking interest when in agreement and ignoring when in disagreement. Nothing new there, but when Sharot called Twitter the "Amygdala of the Internet" - "tweeting is one of the most emotionally arousing activities you likely engage in on most days" - I had to temper my own disagreement bias. Once I stopped chuckling. She makes her case that with respect to similarities in observed responses "a large proportion of our behavior can be explained by commonalities, not differences" - 80 percent predicted by average response and 20 percent by individual differences. That agrees with my position that psychological assessments are statistical in nature, but also is at odds with my position that no one can predict with certainty anything about one person. 80 percent is higher than random, for sure.

On "Should You Scare People into Action? (Incentives) Moving with Pleasure and Freezing with Fear", the data seem to indicate that the carrot is better than the stick in influencing others. I wasn't keen on one of her illustrations in which a woman wanted to persuade her husband to visit a gym and the mentioning of a paunch didn't work but a compliment (following a single visit) on his defined muscles motivated him? "As long as she made her increasing physical attraction to him clear, he kept going back,[...]" Are so many that shallow that that works? Anyway, we seem to like instant reward over future pain. Obvious statement, that, but goes to counter our illusion of rationale.

"How You Obtain Power by Letting Go (Agency) The Joy of Agency and the Fear of Losing Control" - even an illusion of choice invokes a perception of control, which can be influenced. Sharot talks about "the IKEA effect" - tendency to think a shelf one puts together is better than an identical one put together by someone else. (I had a side thought on that: my wife likes to say that fruit salad made by someone else tastes better than made by herself...a wee at odds with that IKEA thing!) "The message, perhaps ironically, is that to influence actions, you need to give people a sense of control. Eliminate the sense of agency and you get anger, frustration, and resistance. Expand people's sense of influence over their word and you increase their motivation and compliance."

People are naturally curious and often make the mistake of thinking that other people are equally curious about the same things. In "What Do People Really Want to Know? (Curiosity) The Value of Information and the Burden of Knowledge", Sharot points out that our instinct being that if we have something (we think is) important to convey, other people would want to know, is wrong. This chapter has some valuable tools for engagement - at least being aware that we might need to reframe our message. Well, of course! Important lesson in reaching others is critically examining one's own perspective in order to frame the message to the target audience. And perhaps not surprisingly, people tend to prefer to remain ignorant, even at terrible costs. To influence, we need to re-evaluate the value of the information we wish to communicate in terms of that audience - and make the message positive, or at least not negative.

It may seem obvious, but mental state has a huge effect on susceptibility to influence...particularly when the state is feeling threatened. In "What Happens to Minds Under Threat? (State) The Influence of Stress and the Ability to Overcome", Sharot explains that being stressed or intimidated changes the way people process information and make decisions, often resulting in "playing it safe" when even a mild risk is the better approach.

The last two chapters involved the influence of what "Others" are thinking on us. The subtitle of "Why Do Babies Love iPhones?" is "The Strength of Social Learning and the Pursuit of Uniqueness". Humans (and higher primates and other animal) initially learn from others by observation and "while we like to see ourselves as different [the paradox is that], we are also quick to adopt the views and preferences of those around us; ...music..., ...technology we use..., ...names we give our children..." The lesson is to be mindful and carfeul when following others' choices. And the second half of "Others" is "Is 'Unanimous' as Reassuring as It Sounds? How to Find Answers in an Unwise Crowd". Sharot discusses James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds, cautioning that crowd sourcing works only under specific conditions. And one must be extra careful to look at how a proposition is posed...how it is framed can affect the outcome (more my observation than in her writing.)

Ms. Sharot states something in her conclusion I've been saying for years, though with a little more academic oomph: "Evolution is slower than technology, and the principle organization of the brain has not experienced significant change since written language first appeared."

Extensively sourced, Ms. Sharot packages only the proverbial tip of the influence iceberg, but she does it well in a conversational, easy read.

(I started this book in June, 2017 but set it aside to finish a couple of other ARCs. And I also set aside the early nits as unnecessarily picked!)

In The Influential Mind, Professor Sharot examines 8 different social factors that effect how the brain thinks. This is not so much a 'How to persuade people' book as much as one that explains how one's own thinking is affected by the knowledge or information of what others think about something.

This book is written very clearly and in a way that concepts are easy to understand (and investigate further, if so inclined). While reading, there was a moment of genuine surprise when I realized how much I was personally affected by one of these factors, and a sense of relief and empowerment to make certain changes in my life. I am very glad to have read this book, and recommend it to those looking for an introduction to how thinking is affected socially.

This is a fascinating look at how prior beliefs, emotion, incentives, agency (control), curiosity, state of mind, and other people impact personal decisions and attempts to persuade others. The main theme focuses on perceptions and interpretations, direct and indirectly. There are numerous examples of language, expressions, and action that support how instincts and emotions help the brain make sense of and will remember what is happening. A brain map shows different areas apply to cognitive functions. There are extensive notes and further readings.

LibraryThing Early Reviewer Giveaway randomly chose me to receive this book. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

The author, a cognitive neuroscientist, researches the connections between psychology and neuroscience. Essentially, she uses experiments in human psychology to help understand the physical structures of the brain. That increased knowledge of the brain helps to inform and direct further research into human psychology. It is a true feedback loop that improves understanding of both the human brain and human psychology. This field is creating new insights into how we think, feel, influence others and, in turn, are influenced by others. It is a fascinating field only made possible by the advanced technology that allows us to peer into the brain while it is functioning. This research is forcing us to reevaluate many ideas we have had about why we behave as we do. While each of us is different, we are learning how startlingly similar we are in so many ways.
This book, as the title states, is about human influence. The author shares some of the results of research from the field by using well-crafted stories which drive home the point in an interesting and painless manner. This work is a godsend for anyone who has ever tried to change someone’s opinion by using a data driven approach, and who hasn’t. We have all felt the futility of this approach and she offers other means that have a much greater chance for success. She discusses other factors which go into influence such as emotions, a sense of agency, stress, and social learning among others. Researchers have much more to learn and to teach us about human thinking and emotion, but this is an excellent introduction to the field and I give it my highest recommendation.

In her book, Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist, explains what scientific research has revealed about how the mind is influenced. The information in the book is useful not only for knowing how to influence others but also how to better understand how we ourselves are influenced. Sharot does not go into depth of how to specifically apply the science of influence, but the information she provides has important implications for business people, marketers, consultants, leaders, politicians, teachers, parents, and anyone else wanting to influence the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of others. This is also an important read for anyone who wants to better protect themselves from undue influence by others.

"The Influential Mind" explains to us, through behavioral science, how illogical humans really are. We say that we're truly logical beings who use higher though to make our own, individual, decisions (not being influenced by anyone or anything else). Well, that's mostly wrong. Try to convince someone to think from a different perspective by using peer-reviewed journals, charts, graphs, loads of very scientific and convincing data? Nope, won't budge them, not at all (well, sometimes, but mostly no). Tell them a story using raw emotions and no scientific data whatsoever, describe to them a scene involving babies in pain, whales being slaughtered, things that make you angry, happy, empowered? That person will be more on board with your idea than you are.

Humans are heavily emotional, social creatures. We like emotions, we like the (positive) emotions of other people, we like to be praised, we like to be in control of our own choices and destiny, we follow opinions of the crowd or masses, even if they're wrong. We DO NOT like to be told what is best for us, or that we should be doing this or that for our health, even if we consciously know we should be doing this or that for our own benefit. If there's no reward, real or perceived, then we won't do it! We won't put energy into something that doesn't involve positive emotions, even if it's good for us.

We humans are convinced that we are solid individualists, when in reality we're semi-permeable membranes that absorb the ideas and behaviors of others, without us consciously knowing it, at all times. We mirror each other, we're a collective species. The author is showing us how truly influential we all are, and how much we can alter the people around us with just the slightest nudges. This also applies to ourselves, how consciously altering a habit we have, either trying to stop one or start one, can change our whole direct perception of the world around us, and in turn quite possibly change others around you in the process.

I would recommend this be read alongside the books "The Happiness Hypothesis" and "The Righteous Mind", both by Johnathan Haidt. All three should give you a very good idea on how and why humans think and make decisions the way they do.

Very fascinating book, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks Tali Sharot!

This book does a good job of exploring the various reasons that things we think will change people’s minds may not. The book is nicely organized so that different sets of data are gathered together by topic, e.g., how emotion or curiosity or priors can affect influence. She cites many studies, including but not restricted to her own. In addition she does a good job of providing a catchy story (or stories) for each chapter, which really does aid in remembering the points she makes. In this time of great divides, where opinions and data abound, this book will be interesting and thought provoking for many, and does give some practical ideas for how you might frame things differently to be able to persuade others.

Using a combination of psychology and neuroscience, The Influential Mind describes how we can influence and change others around us ( and ourselves) by using innovative tactics. We should discard the old, conservative, tried-and-true methods of influence in exchange for these newer ones. For example, the Harry Potter books were rejected 12 times, but the opinion of an eight year old child influenced the editor to publish. Rather than listen to the experts ( other publishers), he listened to the target audience. Each chapter has charts and pictures of how the brain works or how each theory works.

In this book the founder and director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London shares her research and insights into what the brain reveals about our power to change others. Our intuition and common sense about how we can influence others is often proven wrong by the evidence presented throughout the book.

The book is well written, and draws on primary and secondary research to support many helpful and often surprising findings. Clever illustrations summarize the key points of each chapter, and I enjoyed learning:

+ “People with stronger analytic abilities are more likely to twist data at will than people with low reasoning ability.” … “These findings debunk the idea that motivated reasoning is somewhat a trait of less intelligent people.”

+ It is more effective to influence behavior by building on common ground than by demonstrating the errors in peoples’ arguments. “To successfully elicit change, we therefore need to identify common motivations.”

+ People around us are influenced instantly, constantly, and unconsciously by our emotions. Our emotions are contagious and very influential.

+ Anticipating rewards promotes action, while fear and warnings inhibit action.

+ Expanding peoples’ sense of agency—ways we are able to govern our surroundings—makes us happier, healthier, more productive, and more compliant.

+ Messages framed to highlight the possibility of progress are more influential that messages warning of impending doom.

+ People go to great lengths to uncover good news and avoid bad news. The cost becoming certain of a bad outcome is losing the option to believe what you would like to believe.

+ We avoid risk when we are intimidated or under stress. We may start “playing it safe” even when bolder action is the better choice.

+ We learn quickly from others in social settings, even if the influential majority has it wrong.

+ The opinion of an eight year old was crucial in deciding to publish the first Harry Potter book.

Author Tali Sharot delivers on her promise to demonstrate how we can influence the people around us by adopting effective approaches and discarding common, yet ineffective approaches. The book is accessible, authoritative, coherent, engaging, enlightening, factual, interesting, important, up-to-date, well organized, and well-written.

The book is well researched, the arguments are clear, and authoritative references support the text, however contrary evidence, alternative interpretations, and dissenting points of view are rarely presented.

Arguments based on careful logic and representative evidence are presented with an engaging flair that results in an enjoyable read. Interesting stories and rigorous research meld into this readable and authoritative treatment of an important and timely topic.

Interesting book; the conclusions make sense to me.

"A neuroscience based investigation of optimism and how it affects our lives.

I think"
read more at: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/optimism-bias-tali-sharot.html

Author Tali Sharot didn’t expect to stumble on something like the optimism bias while she was researching how traumatic events create “flashbulb memories”, which are unusually vivid memories that as it turns out are often not as accurate as they feel. Why would our brains construct intensely striking memories of harrowing events--like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001--that are not completely true accounts of what happened?

While trying to answer that question Sharot conducted an experiment recording people’s brain activity as they remembered an event in the past and imagined one in the future, but the strange results she got sidetracked her. Every time people were asked to picture a future event, no matter how mundane, they came up with excessively rosy scenarios. People seemed to have a powerful and automatic tendency to imagine an unreasonably bright future. After switching her research focus to optimism Sharot concludes, and argues in this book, that optimism is so important to our survival that the inclination toward it is “hardwired” into our brains. Besides protecting us from stress and worry, optimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though people with an overly pessimistic vision might just give up, people with a helpful level of optimism believe a sunny future is attainable and they’ll work for it. Optimists act in ways that make their rosy predictions more likely to happen.

Interestingly, it’s not just humans who are optimistic. Experiments conducted on many animals, including primates, suggest optimism is a very old evolutionary adaptation.

I don’t think of myself as an optimistic person so I wasn’t expecting to see much of myself in the book’s examples, but as I read I had to admit I am more influenced by this tendency than I would have guessed. At least I’m not alone. Even given facts and figures most people still underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events like becoming ill with disease, being the victim of a crime or going through a divorce. Way more than half of us think we are above average in friendliness, leadership qualities, or common sense, etc., and, of course, statistically many of us have to be wrong in those assumptions. The book is full of lots of examples of how we don’t perceive the world quite as accurately as we think we do, for instance most people are not good judges of what actually makes us happy. Also covered are why hard times often increase group optimism, why we value things more after we chose them (monkeys do this too), and how much dread and anticipation change our experiences of events. Especially illuminating for me was the chapter on the causes and treatment of depression.

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