Tag: psychology

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb made waves when she released Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a poignant memoir that’s spent week after week on the bestseller lists. Now, she joins fellow Lavin Speaker Scott Barry Kaufman on The Psychology Podcast to discuss the book, some misconceptions about therapy, and why searching for “happiness” may be the wrong goal. 

To book speakers Lori Gottlieb or Scott Barry Kaufman for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today and speak with someone on our sales team.

Can someone’s political identity influence their ability to process information? It appears so. In the cognitive phenomenon known as partisanship, identification with a social group becomes so important, it can override reality.  Psychology professor Jay Van Bavel shares strategies to combat this problem in a new TED-Ed video.

Imagine you’re watching your favorite sports team play. You see them commit a foul, but the fans around you cheer them on anyway. The tension between these two things—love for your team, and your understanding of the rules—creates cognitive dissonance. This feeling can be so uncomfortable, you might start to blame the referee or insist there was no foul in the first place, as a way to alleviate the tension. Now imagine the same behavior in politics, and it becomes even more dangerous. “Partisan-based cognitive dissonance can lead people to reject evidence that’s inconsistent with the party line or discredits party leaders. And when entire groups of people revise the facts in service of partisan beliefs, it can lead to policies that aren’t grounded in truth or reason.”

Jay Van Bavel, a professor of psychology and neural science at NYU, encourages us to remember that we’re all more biased than we think we are. To combat the partisanship problem, he suggests making fact-facing and questioning assumptions a valued part of the culture.

Watch the video here.

To book speaker Jay Van Bavel for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.

There are millions of people who want to interact with others in a more productive way online—but how can we empower them to do so? Jamil Zaki, author of The War for Kindness talks to NPR’s Here  & Now about technology and empathy, and how to intertwine them, to make a better, and more human, future for us all.

In her book The Village Effect, award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker wrote about the undeniable, life-affirming benefits of social bonds and face-to-face connection. More recently, she spoke to CBC about why an increasing number of seniors—particularly women— are enjoying living alone. 

Lori Gottlieb’s critically acclaimed memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is Wal-Mart’s favorite read this month. The psychotherapist and bestselling author sat down with the company to discuss why the book has struck a chord with so many, and what else we can expect from her in 2020.  

In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Standford’s Robb Willer and Jan Voelkel explore their thought-provoking research on how reaching across party lines can lead to considerable conservative support for progressive parties—without losing ground among their base.

Where should a Democratic nominee focus their energy to beat Trump in 2020? Should they mobilize the left— like progressive candidate Bernie Sanders—or would they be better off running a more centered campaign, as in the case of former Republican Michael Bloomberg? The answer might not be what you expect. According to Rob Willer, Co-director of the Philanthropy and Civil Society Center at Stanford, both theories neglect the fuller picture of the candidate. “We found that the most effective Democratic candidate would speak in terms of conservative values while proposing progressive economic policies — with some of our evidence suggesting that endorsing highly progressive policies would be best.”

Willer, who was recently appointed Director of Stanford’s landmark Polarization and Social Change Lab, acknowleges that progressive candidates may bristle at the idea of emplying conservative rhetoric like patriotism, family, or the American Dream. However, it makes for a great strategy. “For one thing, Democrats typically tack to the center after winning the nomination, often compromising or abandoning their most progressive policies. Wouldn’t it be preferable to stick to those popular progressive policies, making the case for them using language that would appeal to more Americans?”

Read the full article here.

In these divided times, it can often seem like empathy is difficult, if not downright impossible to find. But for Jamil Zaki, the Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, we have a unique opportunity these days to strengthen our ability to relate to and care for one another—maybe even more than at any other point in human history. 

What do you do when conventional coaching methods aren’t getting you the optimal results? You turn to Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best, the first-ever guide to Motivational Interviewing—a proven technique for building relationships—co-authored by leading performance psychologist Jonathan Fader. 

Stories are the way we make sense of our lives. But that doesn’t mean that the ones we tell ourselves are good, or even true. Instead of providing clarity, they often just keep us stuck in the same painful patterns. In her new TED Talk, which has been viewed over 600,000 times in four days, Lori Gottlieb—renowned therapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone—shows us the life-affirming power we have to change our lives through narrative.  

In her years of clinical practice (not to mention years of writing The Atlantic’s Dear Therapist column), Lori Gottlieb noticed that there are thematic similarities to the stories we tell. “Our stories about freedom go like this: we believe, in general, that we have an enormous amount of freedom. Except when it comes to the problem at hand, in which case, suddenly, we feel like we have none. Many of our stories are about feeling trapped, right? We feel imprisoned by our families, our jobs, our relationships, our pasts,” Gottlieb shares.

The problem with attaining the freedom we claim to seek is that it comes with a certain sense of responsibility; responsibility for our role in the story, and the moves we need to make for it to change. “There's something oddly comforting about knowing exactly how the story is going to go every single time,” admits Gottlieb. “To write a new chapter is to venture into the unknown.”

In her funny, honest, and cathartic new talk, Gottlieb opens us up to the possibility that—no matter how scary it may seem—with the right tools, we can successfully rewrite our stories and transform the quality of our lives.

Watch her full TED talk here.

To book speaker Lori Gottlieb for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.

Lori Gottlieb started her career as a film and TV executive, followed by a period as a nationally recognized journalist. Today, she’s a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author. Though her career trajectory has been anything but linear, the common thread through it all is her genuine curiosity on the human condition, and a deep belief in the power of story. Gottlieb dives into the messy realities of what it means to be human—and shows us how, despite it all, we can create lives of meaning and fulfillment. 

To book speaker Lori Gottlieb for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau. 

Adam Alter—NYU Marketing Professor and New York Times bestselling author—joins Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Joel Pearson for an engaging conversation on how addictive technology influences our lives. 

Why are so many people addicted to technology? Adam Alter has been investigating the question for years, most notably in his latest book Irresistible. It’s a topic that comes up in his fruitful conversation with Joel Pearson, along with many others. For instance, is there such a thing as sustainable tech? What are the mental health effects of big tech? And can we understand addictive technology as a tax on the poor?

“Screens are pacifiers for adults,” Alter admits. “Everytime we’re a little uncomfortable, whether that’s socially or whether we have some small measure of anxiety, our first instinct is to turn to our phones.” Unsurprisingly, this major shift in instinctual behavior has consequences, for us and for future generations. But there’s always going to be benefits to tech, Alter says, cautioning against throwing the baby out with the bathwater: “The trick is going to be working out just the right balance.”

You can listen to their full conversation here.

To book speaker Adam Alter for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency today.

What is the one thing wrong with the world that you would change, and why? It’s a question posed by Harvard University to its faculty, in a new ongoing series. In it, professor Steven Pinker shares his desire to temper our cognitive biases with hard facts.  

Why do we tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses, but not the future? Psychology Professor and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on ABC Radio to discuss how the negative nature of today’s news media fuels our pessimistic attitudes. 

“Journalism is driven by events. Events are usually things that go wrong. It’s very easy for something bad to happen very quickly…a terrorist attack, an explosion, an epidemic, a famine,” explains Steven Pinker, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. “But things going right tend to build up over time, and they often tend to be things that don’t happen. […] And since the news doesn’t cover what does not happen, nor does it tend to cover gradual changes, people are actually ignorant of these positive indicators.”

News, says Pinker, should operate more like the sports page that reports both wins and losses. “In the realm of news, people would have a more accurate picture of the world if it had something more like a dashboard of indicators of the state of the world.”

You can listen to the full conversation here.

To book Steven Pinker for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency today.

Climate change is a phenomenon that 70 percent of Americans believe is happening, and one they understand to be harmful to future generations. Reversing its effects is possible if we drastically change our consumption habits and behavior—so why haven’t we done so? Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki reveals the science behind our inaction for The Washington Post. 

Renowned psychologist Angela Duckworth joins Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, for an enlightening conversation about grit, bravery, and challenging yourself outside of your comfort zone. 

Once a lifestyle app featuring beautifully curated images, Instagram has become the newest, easiest shopping destination. In a new article on The Cut, psychologist and bestselling author Adam Alter explains why we’re so addicted, and how we can manage our symptoms in a digital world of access and convenience. 

Part of the addictive, shopping-fuelled influence of Instagram lies in its ability to make us want things. “You’re seeing the top one percent of interesting people doing the top one percent of the most interesting things in their lives, and that puts you in an aspirational mindset that leads you to shop for betterment,” says Adam Alter, a professor of marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business and the bestselling author of Irresistible.

Moreover, Instagram produces in us a feeling that’s akin to what gamblers experience when they’re playing the slots: sedated, pain-free, almost floating. “It’s an effortlessness that isn’t true about the rest of life,” Alter says. “Instagram is similar — it puts you in a calm state. The problem is, most people can’t get enough of it, so they ignore cues that it’s time to move on to do something else, and sit there for hours and hours.” The more time you spend on the app, the higher the chances are you’ll make a purchase, and the more information you give to advertisers about your preferences.

You can read the full article, including helpful tips to manage your online behavior, here.

Curious to know more? Visit our dedicated Psychology Speakers page, or contact a sales agent at The Lavin Agency for more information on booking a speaker.

MasterClass brought us online classes taught by some of the world’s greatest minds. Now, Outlier brings us University-level courses from some of the world’s best educators. Daniel Lerner, a mastermind of positive psychology, joins the platform that’s changing the future of higher education. 

In her New York Times bestselling book The Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova investigates the mind, methods, and motives of con artists. A newfound expert on the topic, Konnikova analyses real-live cons in the latest episode of NPR’s Rough Translation. 

When she began writing The Confidence Game, New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova noticed that there was a common thread in the way stories about con artists were told. In these narratives, the con artist was often elevated to the status of hero, a champion of crime, while the victim became “the mark”: an object of pity, bordering on contempt.

Throughout the course of her research, Konnikova realized that there is a negative effect to romanticizing con artists, just as there is a negative effect to believing we’ll never be conned. Both leave us vulnerable. “One of the things you realize when you study con artists is that we’re conning ourselves all the time, about who we are, about our stories, and con artists just pick up on that,” Konnikova explains. “They figure out how we’re conning ourselves. That’s one of the reasons we’re so susceptible.” In her talks, Konnikova translates the lessons of the con into actionable insights for how to better anticipate the needs of clients, employees, and core audiences.

In this episode of Rough Translation, Konnikovan analyzes real-life examples of cons submitted by listeners. You can listen to the full episode here.

To book speaker Maria Konnikova for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today.

Established in 1996, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) acknowledges outstanding contributions in STEM education and community service. This year, Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University Jamil Zaki received the prestigious award.

Much of Jamil Zaki’s research focuses on how we can build and strengthen our connections to one another in a world that’s become increasingly polarized. Author of the acclaimed book The War For Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, Zaki informs us that empathy is not a character trait, but a skill we can develop with dedication and practice. Zaki was nominated for the PECASE award by the National Science Foundation for his exceptional, groundbreaking contributions to the field. He is one of twelve faculty members at Stanford who was honored.

Now an in-demand empathy speaker all over the world, Zaki shows us how empathy in action can transform our professional, creative, and personal relationships.

To book speaker Jamil Zaki for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau. 

Can human beings teach themselves to become kinder? According to science, all signs point to yes. Stanford psychologist and author of The War For Kindness Jamil Zaki has designed a week-long kindness challenge to push people outside of their comfort zones—and into connection with each other.

Humans are the world-class champions of empathy, superior to every other being on the planet when it comes to understanding and helping one another. That being said, practicing empathy isn’t always easy, and the conditions of modern life—ubiquitous technology, heightened stress, social polarity—have made it even harder to connect. In The War For Kindness, Jamil Zaki reveals that contrary to our cultural beliefs, empathy is more like a skill than a fixed trait—meaning that, just like any muscle, it can be strengthened with a little bit of hard work. As a result, Zaki has developed the Kindness Challenge: a series of exercises designed to stretch your empathy muscles and help you connect to one another.

The experiment originates from a class Zaki taught at Stanford—a ten-week experiment exploring generosity, goodwill, and empathy from both a scientific and personal perspective. In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, Zaki writes, “I designed ‘Becoming Kinder’ as an empathy gym for my students. At the end of each week, I handed them a ‘kindness challenge,’ designed to help them push past their social comfort zones and connect with others in new ways.”

Starting July 8th, Zaki will take the Kindness Challenge out of the classroom, releasing a new video challenge on Facebook and Instagram every day for a week. Participants are encouraged to share their experiences with the hashtag #KindnessChallenge.  

“My own research demonstrates that simply believing empathy is a skill, rather than an innate trait, inspires people to try harder at it, even connecting with people of different races or political persuasions. My students worked at kindness and grew as a result. If more of us follow suit, we have a chance to mend our social fabric.”

To book speaker Jamil Zaki or another Psychology Speaker, contact The Lavin Agency for more information.

How can empathy counteract political discord and alienation? According to Jamil Zaki, the answer is building it into our  institutions and interactions. The Economist’s Open Future Initiative spoke with Zaki on how we can begin to heal our fractured society, starting with his new book The War for Kindness.

Empathy is the “psychological super-glue” that connects people, according to Jamil Zaki, Stanford psychologist and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. Unfortunately, it appears that empathy is a skill we’re rapidly losing. “Counteracting these trends means putting people in the position to replace ‘us and them’ with ‘you and I,’ as well as the incentives to see outsiders as people, rather than mere symbols of their group,” Zaki explained to The Economist. “One reliable way to do this is to bring people from different groups together under egalitarian circumstances and with shared goals.” 

The first step in re-learning empathy is understanding that it is under our control; the second is identifying its value and benefit. Empathetic individuals often experience greater happiness, less stress, and greater professional success: “Poetically, one of the best ways we can help ourselves starts with caring for each other.”

Curious to learn more? Browse our dedicated Psychology speaker selection, or contact The Lavin Agency for more information on booking a speaker for your next event.

With The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, Zaki uses a scientific framework to drive home the idea that empathy is something that we can all learn and benefit from: “When people believe they can become more caring through effort, they put in that effort, including working harder to connect with people who look or think differently than themselves.” Garnering early praise, it was recently featured in the Harvard Business Review, and has been called “a masterpiece” that “will stay in your heart forever” by Grit author and Lavin speaker Angela Duckworth.

Modernity is eroding our sense of empathy, says Jamil Zaki. But there’s a lot we can do to reverse this troubling trend. As Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, Zaki has explored and studied the neurological foundations of empathy, as well as the social. Empathic powers are not so much a trait gifted to a lucky few, he argues, but a skill that can be cultivated by anyone, at any time. Moreover, it is a skill that he believes should be central to our lives.

“Empathy evolved as one of humans’ vital survival skills,” Zaki writes, noting that over millennia, humans have become less aggressive and more perceptive of one another’s thoughts and feelings. It is only through our foray into the modern world that we have lost touch with our evolutionary empathy.

“Empathy and kindness sound like rosy topics, but our culture has made them thorny,” Zaki explains. “We’re surrounded by alienation, animus, and exhaustion. These forces push against empathy, making it feel emotionally unaffordable. Choosing to care anyway requires fighting back against those forces. In many contexts—such as our polarized political climate or in the face of growing cynicism—empathy is an act of defiance.” 

To book speaker Jamil Zaki or another Psychology Speaker for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today.

It’s a month into 2019, do you know where your New Year’s resolutions are? These speakers—behavioral scientists, grit experts, and psychologists—help audiences define and stick to their goals, both at work and at home.  

Angela Duckworth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit—her landmark work on the importance of passion, perseverance and character to overall success in life. Her talks are in incredibly high demand among educators, athletes, and business leaders—anyone interested in cultivating top performers. In the video below she uses the behavior of national spelling bee champs to illustrate the importance of grit in reaching a goal.   

When it comes to achieving goals, sometimes your environment can be more harmful than helpful. This is called choice architecture, and it’s something you can design and control to help you make better decisions, more often. In the video below behavioral economist and Wharton professor Katherine Milkman explains exactly what choice architecture is, and how you can make it work to your advantage—at home, and at work. 

Positive psychologist Daniel Lerner teaches the “Science of Happiness”—the most popular elective at NYU. In talks he breaks down the science of achieving your goals, revealing that there’s a right way and a wrong way to get there: “when we do things that we’re really passionate about, harmoniously, we can rise to the top. Studies show that whether you’re harmonious or obsessive there is very little difference in our ability to rise up.” 

To book one of our behavioral scientists, grit experts, or psychologists for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency.  

Lavin speaker Lera Boroditsky had the most popular TED talk of 2018. Millions have watched her explain how language shapes the way we think. Watch it below.

To book Lera Boroditsky for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency.

Jamil Zaki is Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, which aims to unpack, understand, and ultimately teach empathy: “empathetic practice becomes empathetic habits becomes empathetic people,” says Zaki in his acclaimed TED Talk. It’s a skill, he explains. We just have to start seeing it that way.

To book Jamil Zaki, or another speaker on empathy like Megan Phelps-Roper, contact The Lavin Agency, their exclusive speakers bureau. 

Compelling speaker, bestselling author, and Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker has already received the ultimate book review from Bill Gates: “It’s my new favorite book of all time.” Now, a week after the publication of Enlightenment Now—a masterfully argued and timely defense of reason, science and humanism in the face of tribalism, authoritarianism, and demonization—a fresh wave of positive reviews have rolled in.

“Enlightenment Now is a bold, wonderfully expansive and occasionally irate defense of scientific rationality and liberal humanism.”—The Guardian

“Enlightenment Now offers up important ideas about not only the world itself, but also in how we make it our own.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“The appeal of regressive ideas is perennial, and the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress always has to be made, Pinker concludes. That is exactly what he has achieved in this intellectually exhilarating book.”—Reason Magazine

“This is an important and timely book.”—Times Literary Supplement

“It would be hard to imagine a more encouraging defense than Pinker’s of the reality and possibilities of progress.”—Harvard Magazine

Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is available now wherever book are sold. To learn more about Steven Pinker, or another speaker on psychology, optimism, or society, contact The Lavin Agency.  href=”http: www.thelavinagency.com=”>

Newspaper headlines are an endless stream of violence, destruction, and looming threats. But Harvard professor and leading cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says that we’re actually living longer, healthier, and happier lives than ever before. In his much-anticipated book Enlightenment Now (already named one of The Guardian’s best of 2018 and declared by Bill Gates to be his new favorite), he explains how now, more than ever, we must commit to Enlightenment values—reason, science, and humanism.

Enlightenment Now (out today!) is the natural follow-up to Pinker’s New York Times bestseller The Better Angels of Our Nature, a fascinating analysis of why violence is declining that Bill Gates called “the most inspiring book I’ve ever read.” Picking up where the previous book left off, Enlightenment Now urges us to step back from the gory headlines, which play into our psychological biases, and instead, look at the data. Health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human progress.   

Pinker’s bold new keynote, based on the book, develops these ideas further, offering insights into why our headlines would present a reality so different from what the data shows. He proves to audiences that the most valuable tenets of the Enlightenment are what will shake complacency, repair our democracy, and restore hope in 2018, all with his trademark wit, optimism and clarity. 

The Lavin Agency’s exclusive psychology speakers are second to none. They’re professors at Harvard, NYU, and Yale; they’re managing world-class research labs, and writing bestselling books. Contact us today to learn more. 

In advance of speaker Steven Pinker’s new book, Enlightenment Now, the Harvard professor sat down with Microsoft visionary and philanthropist Bill Gates to discuss the Enlightenment values of reason and science —which Pinker believes are still key to human progress —and why “we have no right to expect perfection.”

Last year, Bill Gates called speaker Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature “the most inspiring book I’ve ever read.” Now, in anticipation of Pinker’s “sequel,” Enlightenment Now, the two friends met for a front page New York Times Sunday Business feature aptly headlined A Meeting of the Minds.  “The world is getting better, even if it doesn't always feel that way,” writes Gates in his review of the book. “I’m glad we have brilliant thinkers like Steven Pinker to help us see the big picture. Enlightenment Now is not only the best book Pinker’s ever written. It’s my new favorite book of all time.” Discussing what motivates them to believe that humanity is improving, Pinker elaborates on the evidence-based argument that shows how just how different contemporary societies are from their predecessors, which he brings as a speaker to his brand new keynote on the subject. 

More than providing a congratulatory overview of how far we’ve come as a civilization, Enlightenment Now — and Pinker’s attendant keynote — explores how we can adjust to this fact to ensure further progress. As he tells Gates, “One of the biggest enemies of reason is tribalism. When people subscribe to an ideology, they suck up evidence that supports their preconceptions and filter out evidence that goes against them. Contrary to the belief of most scientists that denial of climate change is an effect of scientific illiteracy, it is not at all correlated with scientific literacy. People who believe in man-made climate change don’t know any more about climate or science than those who deny it. It’s almost perfectly correlated with left-wing versus right-wing orientation. And a move toward greater rationality would unbundle them and let evidence inform what the optimal policies ought to be.”

To learn more about speaker Steven Pinker or to book him for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.