#83 Meet The Leading Behavioural Change Neuroscientist for 2026

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
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