[think different]

- Here to persuade you psychology is fun.
- Watch out — psychologists can play some funny tricks - you need to think for yourself...


[superhero]

Some psychology is about how amazing people are

- Colour TV in our heads
- Talk to each other and understand
- Juggling chainsaws
- Memorise 3 packs of cards



[depression]

Some of psychology is about what happens when this all goes wrong,

- helping people who are depressed, or anxious, or have frightening delusions.
- change people's behaviour — help them quit unhealthy habits, and start new healthy ones.


[einstein]


Along the way, often discover that we make mistakes – lots of them

Some of these we call "biases", can be funny:

ASK THEM ARE THEY ABOVE OR BELOW AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE

- 93% of american drivers think they are above average in terms of driving skill (!).
- 3/4 of Nebraska university professors thought they were in the top 1/4 of teachers!






A mistake is a time what we thought was different to what actually was:

Some of those 98% drivers are wrong!

- Sky not purple
- No flying kittens

... or at least other people won't agree with us.


Sometimes when we get things wrong the world doesn't agree with us either...


[car crash]


But it's also really interesting when the opposite happens.

That is, when you think something will happen, and it does happen — *but only because you thought it would*!

**It's like you made a mistake, but your mind fixes up the real world to make you right!**



[prozac]

This happens quite a lot, perhaps more than you expect.

Doctors know what they say to patients and how they present themselves is important.

Compare medicines with sugar pills — to make sure their drugs weren't "just" a placebo effect...

But it turns out that something which is "just" a placebo can be pretty useful.


All know people on antidepressants,
Probably seen someone struggling with depression.

It's a really serious illness. Leading causes of death for middle aged men.



But because depression is about our mood and about our thoughts, it's quite responsive to inteventions which help us change the way we think.


Test antidepressants by comparing them to placebo:  placebo patients get better almost as fast (about 80% of the improvement).

Not because depression wasn't 'real' or the improvement isn't important

It's actually that we need to pay attention to what people expect to happen, and how they feel about it, when we treat them.

In some studies, you're actually better off being treated by the best doctor with placebos, rather than the worst one with real medications.


It's not just antidepressents either. 50% of effect of morphine for pain is caused by open administration.






The way we explain this is that people shape their own experiences through their expectations.

So if you can persuade someone they won't feel pain, they probably won't — or at least much less.



How do we decide what to expect?  We learn things...

- 2 pills better than 1
- Capusles/vs pills
- Branded better than generic, expensive better than cheap
- Injections better than pills (esp if you're american)
- Hospitals are great (as long as you're not scared)





Our theories aren't that great though. The challenge is to work out exactly how and why this happens, and also how to use this knowledge to help people, without having to trick people.

Thanks for listening...