{"id":281,"date":"2012-01-26T19:30:06","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T19:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/?p=281"},"modified":"2012-08-04T10:46:45","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T09:46:45","slug":"science-of-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/2012\/01\/26\/science-of-optimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Science of Optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\nWe like to think of ourselves as rational creatures. We watch our backs, weigh the odds, pack an umbrella. But science suggests that most of us are more optimistic than realistic. In fact, optimism may be crucial to our existence.<\/p>\n<p>Join Dr. Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist working at University College London, as she will take us on a tour of the irrationally positive brain. Tali will explain how the brain generates hope and what happens when it fails; how the brains of optimists and pessimists differ; why we are terrible at predicting what will make us happy; how emotions strengthen our ability to recollect; how anticipation and dread affect us; and how our optimistic illusions affect our financial, professional, and emotional decisions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> Thursday 26th January 2012<br \/>\n<strong>Time:<\/strong> 7pm, for a 7.30pm start<br \/>\n<strong>Place:<\/strong> Upstairs at The Lamb, 92 Lambs Conduit Street, WC1N 3LZ [<a href=\"http:\/\/local.google.co.uk\/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=WC1N+3LZ&amp;sll=53.800651%2c-4.064941&amp;sspn=14.56721%2c27.246094&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=London+WC1N+3LZ%2c+United+Kingdom&amp;ll=51.523484%2c-0.123768&amp;spn=0.007476%2c0.021479&amp;t=h&amp;z=16\" target=\"_blank\">gmap<\/a>]<br \/>\n<strong>Cost:<\/strong> Free\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Time_Cover4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-290\" title=\"Time_Cover\" src=\"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Time_Cover4-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Time_Cover4-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Time_Cover4.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Photos from the night can be seen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sciencelondon\/sets\/72157629268512115\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> on Flickr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We like to think of ourselves as rational creatures. We watch our backs, weigh the odds, pack an umbrella. But science suggests that most of us are more optimistic than realistic. In fact, optimism may be crucial to our existence. Join Dr. Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist working at University College London, as she will take [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-past","category-scibar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/science-london.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}