Copy the feed link and paste it into your aggregator
Subscribe to this podcast with iTunes
This is the podcast feed for Skeptics in the Pub, Oxford. For the main website, including a calendar of future events, please go here.
This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Oxford Skeptics in the Pub events podcast
Thinking and drinking. That is the unlikely goal of our meeting. Each month we invite a speaker to talk about an area of belief and to invite critical debate. We encourage skeptical thought and we enjoy challenging discussions.
Professor Elaine Fox, 6 Feb 2013
05-03-2013
What is Optimism? And, is it really good for us?
Elaine will discuss the nature of “rainy brains” and “sunny brains” asking where these fundamental differences in how we see the world actually come from. She will take us on a journey through cognitive psychology, neuroscience and molecular genetics and will argue that who we are – optimist or pessimist – comes from an intricate dance of genes, fate, and – most crucially - subliminal biases in how we notice, interpret and remember what goes on around us. She will argue that optimism is much more than positive thinking and that the benefits actually come from some other core elements of optimism such as positive actions, a tendency for persistence, and a sense of having control over one's destiny.
Categories
Filetype: MP3