A review by karend
The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain by Tali Sharot

3.0

This was slow going for me at times, but I did like reading about the various studies (and learned the exchange rate is between Cheerios and marshmallows topped with a fruit roll ups according to one group of primates). The point that stuck with me is one that wasn't explicitly made in the book: there's a biological mechanism in the brain that explains why positive affirmations can work: "Via neuronal signaling, higher layers of the brain can convey expectations to lower levels, biasing their activity." There was a chunk in here about people's memories of 9/11 that didn't seem to have anything much to do with optimism but did shed some light on how memories are stored.