Tali Sharot facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tali Sharot
Tali Sharot in 2010.
Nationality	Israeli, American, British
Alma mater	New York University, Tel Aviv University
Occupation	Professor of cognitive neuroscience
Employer	University College London
Spouse(s)	Josh McDermott ​ (m. 2013)​

Tali Sharot is a scientist who studies the brain. She is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London in the UK and MIT in the USA. Cognitive neuroscience is a field that looks at how our brains work when we think, feel, and make decisions.

Tali Sharot studied at Tel Aviv University in Israel, where she earned a degree in economics in 1999. She then moved to the United States and got her master's degree in psychology from New York University in 2002. She also completed her PhD in psychology and neuroscience at New York University. Dr. Sharot is famous for her work on how our brains handle emotion, how we make choices, and why we often feel optimistic. She hopes her research can help people live happier and healthier lives.

Early Life and Education

Tali Sharot grew up in Israel. Her father was English, and her mother was Israeli. At home, she spoke both English and Hebrew. In school, she learned in Hebrew. After finishing her studies at Tel Aviv University, she went to New York University. There, she worked on her master's degree and PhD in psychology.

While she was in New York, Dr. Sharot saw the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. This event made her want to study how strong feelings affect our memories. A few years later, she and other researchers talked to 22 people who were in Manhattan during the attacks. They wanted to understand how their memories of that day were shaped by their emotions.

What Tali Sharot Discovered

Dr. Sharot is well-known for finding out how our brains create optimism. Optimism is the feeling that good things will happen. Her discoveries have been shared in many important science journals. In her books, The Optimism Bias and The Science of Optimism, she explains why being optimistic can be helpful for us as humans. She also talks about the possible downsides of being too optimistic.

Many news outlets have talked about Dr. Sharot's work. It helps us understand how we think about health, money, and even online safety. She has appeared on radio and TV shows and in newspapers. In 2017, she published another book called The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others. This book shows how important emotions are when we try to convince others. It also explains that just giving people facts or data isn't always enough to change their minds. This book was chosen as one of the best books of 2017 by many groups. Dr. Sharot has also given talks at big events like TED2012.

The Affective Brain Lab

Tali Sharot leads a research group called the Affective Brain Lab. This lab uses neuroscience and psychology to study how emotions affect our normal thinking and behavior. They also look at how emotions might play a role in common mental health issues.

The lab uses special brain scanning tools to see what happens inside the brain. They also use other methods to study how the brain works. Their goal is to understand how the brain causes problems when it doesn't work correctly. They hope their research can help people who have brain-related difficulties.

Awards and Achievements

Dr. Sharot has received many important awards and honors. She got special fellowships from groups like the Wellcome Trust and the British Academy. She won the British Psychological Society Book award twice: in 2014 for The Optimism Bias and in 2018 for The Influential Mind. She has been called one of the top female scientists from Israel. Her two talks at the TED conference have been watched by over 15 million people around the world.

Hope isn’t rational, so why are humans wired for it?

—Tali Sharot

Images for kids

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  Tali Sharot in 2010.