David Robson Books
David Robson is a British science journalist and author known for his work on psychology and behavioral science. He has written for publications such as New Scientist, BBC Future, and The Guardian, focusing on the intersection of science and human behavior.
Known for: The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things and How to Make Wiser Decisions
Books by David Robson
The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World
Science journalist David Robson explores how expectations shape our physical and mental reality. Drawing on research in psychology and neuroscience, he shows that beliefs about aging, stress, diet, an...
The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things and How to Make Wiser Decisions
The Intelligence Trap explores why high intelligence does not always lead to wise decision-making. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral science, David Robson examines how cognitive bias...
Key Insights from David Robson
Historical Background: Placebos, Nocebos, and the Birth of Expectation Science
The roots of the expectation effect stretch back over a century to when medicine first faced its mysterious partner, the placebo effect. For decades, physicians observed baffling recoveries triggered by inert pills, harmless injections, and ritualistic treatments. The insight that expectation alone ...
From The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World
The Biology of Belief: How the Brain Turns Expectations into Reality
At the heart of expectation’s power lies the brain’s predictive nature. Every moment, it’s generating models of what will happen next — how your heartbeat should feel, how heavy your limbs should be, how your next sip of coffee will taste. When the brain predicts accurately, experience feels smooth....
From The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World
Historical and Scientific Background
The history of human achievement is laced with both brilliance and blindness. To begin understanding why the intelligence trap occurs, I turn first to some of the great minds whose misjudgments have profoundly shaped our understanding of fallibility. The physicist William Shockley, co-inventor of th...
From The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things and How to Make Wiser Decisions
Cognitive Biases and Reasoning Flaws
As I examined decades of cognitive research, I found that the roots of the intelligence trap lie in biases that twist our reasoning. Among them, confirmation bias—the tendency to seek only information that reinforces our beliefs—is perhaps the most notorious. But its cousin, motivated reasoning, is ...
From The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things and How to Make Wiser Decisions
About David Robson
David Robson is a British science journalist and author known for his work on psychology and behavioral science. He has written for publications such as New Scientist, BBC Future, and The Guardian, focusing on the intersection of science and human behavior.
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David Robson is a British science journalist and author known for his work on psychology and behavioral science. He has written for publications such as New Scientist, BBC Future, and The Guardian, focusing on the intersection of science and human behavior.
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