Intro

Dr. Tali Sharot is a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Affective Brain Lab, whose research reveals the hidden rules that actually change human behavior, beliefs, and motivation.Most people think facts and logic should be enough to persuade someone, quit a bad habit, or finally convince their dad to exercise. But the brain doesn’t work like that. In this episode, Tali explains why our “priors” and identity make beliefs stubborn, why emotion and storytelling sync brains in a way statistics can’t, and why the real driver of change isn’t knowledge, it’s incentives, rewards, and habit formation.Expect to learn why beliefs and behaviour are only weakly connected, how to use social incentives and immediate rewards to build habits that stick, the surprisingly simple intervention that pushed hospital handwashing compliance to nearly 90%, why punishment often backfires in policy and personal life, how to fight habituation to the best parts of your life through breaks and small changes, and why social media may be the “amygdala of the internet” shaping attention, fear, and belief in the age of AI, VR, and deepfakes…Timestamps: 00:00 Why facts bounce off: priors, identity, motivated reasoning06:06 Stories beat statistics: the emotion engine of persuasion07:52 Brain synchrony: why narratives feel contagious09:27 The “dad won’t exercise” paradox: belief isn’t the problem11:53 The 3 levers of behavior change: social, rewards, progress17:18 Handwashing at 10%: the tiny tweak that hit ~90%19:26 Reward beats punishment: the policy nudges that actually work33:25 Aphantasia: the shocking percentage who can’t visualize34:24 Hedonic adaptation: how to stop taking your life for granted50:03 Social media numbness: when stimulation resets your reward bar55:04 Deepfakes, VR and truth bias: why “corrections” fail01:11:06 Closing: the 17M-view TED Talk and final takeaways...❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/