What do we really know about ourselves?
Leonard Mlodinow, best-selling author of ‘The Drunkard’s Walk’, visits the RSA to examine how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world, and how we often misperceive everything from our relationships with family, friends and business associates, the reasons for our investment decisions, to our own past.
Our preference in politicians, the amount of tip we give - all our judgements and perceptions reflect the workings of our mind on two levels, the conscious, of which we are aware, and the unconscious, which is hidden from us.
The latter has long been the subject of speculation, but over the past two decades scientific researchers have developed remarkable new tools for probing the hidden, or subliminal, workings of the mind. The result of this explosion of research is a new science of the unconscious, and a sea change in our understanding of how the mind affects the way we live.