Dr. Tali Sharot

Tali Sharot is a professor of cognitive neuroscience whose work integrates neuroscience, behavioral economics, and psychology. Sharot holds a professorship in the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry at University College London, and is also on the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. A graduate of New York University, she earned a master's in psychology and a doctorate in psychology and neuroscience. Before her academic career, Sharot worked in the financial industry, providing her research with a practical perspective.

Sharot is recognized for her research on the neural basis of emotion, decision making, and optimism. As director of the Affective Brain Lab, she leads research that combines neural imaging, pharmacological manipulation, and genetic principles to study human behavior and neurological mechanisms, with applications in addressing brain dysfunction. Her work in psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience explores the factors that shape decisions, beliefs, and expectations, and how these can be modified or maintained.

Sharot is the author of several books, including "The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain," which examines why the brain tends to overestimate positive outcomes. In this book and a TIME cover story, she discusses findings from social science and neuroscience to illuminate the evolutionary roots of human hopefulness. Her book "The Influential Mind" analyzes how influence is most effective when aligned with the core elements that govern thought and emotion. "The Influential Mind" was selected as a best book of the year by Forbes, The Times, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, Greater Good Magazine, and Stanford Business School. Sharot also co-authored "Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There" with Cass R. Sunstein, exploring habituation and how awareness of this psychological adaptation can lead to a more examined life.

Sharot has received fellowships from the Wellcome Trust, the Forum of European Philosophy, and the British Academy, and won the British Psychological Society Book Award for both "The Optimism Bias" and "The Influential Mind." Her research has been published in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, and Psychological Science.

Sharot's TED talks have accumulated more than 15 million views. She has written for The New York Times, Time, and The Washington Post, and has appeared on CNN, NBC, and MSNBC. Sharot has advised global companies and government projects, and her speaking audiences include Google, Microsoft, the European Parliament, NATO, Goldman Sachs, Prudential, and the World Economic Forum. She is known for explaining concepts in human behavior, decision science, and cognitive neuroscience in accessible ways, and for demonstrating how these insights can be applied in finance, marketing, health, and public policy.