Tali Sharot

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, director of the Affective Brain Lab, University College London

Tali Sharot is the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology and The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry at University College London and on the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. Sharot is a Wellcome Disovery Award holder, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, Chief Editor (neuroscience) for Science Advances and past President of the Society of Neuroeconmics. Sharot’s research integrates neuroscience behavioral economics and psychology to study how emotion and motivation influences people’s beliefs and decisions. Prof. Sharot’s award winning books – The Optimism Bias (2011) and The Influential Mind (2017) – have been praised by outlets including the NYT, Times, Forbes and more. Her latest book, Lokk Again, was co-authored with Cass Sunstein,  in 2024. In addition to her academic role, Sharot has served as a consultant for global companies and government projects, as well as on the board of several companies. Her two TED talks have been viewed more than 17 million times total. She has written multiple Op-Eds for the NYT, Time, Guardian, Washington Post, CNN and others.