Tali Sharot

Tali Sharot is on the faculty of MIT and UCL where she directs the Affective Brain Lab. Her thought-provoking insights have helped organizations and governments induce behavioral change, create decision-making policies, and improve the well-being of employees and customers.

Her groundbreaking work at the intersection of behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience has been used by businesses to improve leadership skills, rethink messaging, and refine strategy. Her books, “The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others” and “The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain,” have been widely praised, including by the New York Times, TIME magazine, Forbes, and more. Her anticipated new book, co-authored with Cass Sunstein, will be out next year. It tells the story of how over time people stop noticing the good and the bad around them, and how to make these salient again so we can marvel in the good and change the bad.

Sharot is known for delivering engaging talks that are simultaneously lively and informative, explaining deep ideas about human behavior in a simple way and highlighting how those insights can be implemented in a range of fields including finance, marketing, health, and public policy. Her TED talks have been viewed over 13 million times.