NOTE FROM TED: Please do not look to this talk for medical advice. This talk only represents the speaker's personal views and understanding of mindset and health. Several claims currently lack sufficient legitimate scientific support. We've flagged this talk because it falls outside the content guidelines TED gives TEDx organizers. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/t...

Every one of us carries beliefs about ourselves, our abilities and what the future holds for us. We take these beliefs to be inescapable facts – truths that cannot be ignored. But often it is the beliefs themselves that determine the outcomes, through changes to our perception, our behaviour and – amazingly – our physiology. This is the expectation effect, and in this talk award-winning science writer David Robson explains how we can use it to maximise the benefits of medical treatments, optimise our responses to stress, boost the effects of exercise, and even increase how long we live. David Robson is an award-winning science writer specialising in psychology, neuroscience and medicine.
After graduating in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, he became a feature editor joining New Scientist – the UK’s most popular science magazine. He was later a senior journalist at the BBC, before writing his first book, The Intelligence Trap, published by Hodder & Stoughton (UK) and WW Norton(USA) in 2019. His second book, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life, was published by Canongate/Henry Holt in 2022. It examines cutting-edge science showing the many ways that our beliefs create self-fulfilling prophecies – and how we can use this to our advantage.
David’s writing has appeared in the Guardian, Popular Science, Men’s Health, the Atlantic the Psychologist. In 2021, he received awards from the Association of British Science Writers and the UK Medical Journalists’ Association for his writing on misinformation and risk communication during the COVID pandemic, in 2022 he was a finalist for the British Science Journalist of the Year award. To find out more about David, visit www.davidrobson.me This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx