David McRaney

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Science Journalist and CEO of the School of Thought
Internationally Bestselling Author, 'You Are Not So Smart' and 'How Minds Change'
Creator and Host, 'You Are Not So Smart' Podcast
Expert in the Psychology of Reasoning and Decision-Making

Science journalist, podcaster, and internationally bestselling author David McRaney is an expert in the psychology of reasoning, decision making, and self-delusion. His wildly popular blog became the international bestselling book You Are Not So Smart, revealing and celebrating our irrational and thoroughly human behavior. His second bestseller, You Are Now Less Dumb, gives readers a fighting chance at outsmarting their brains. His most recent book, How Minds Change, is a brain-bending and big-hearted investigation into the science of belief, opinion, and persuasion. An in-demand speaker, McRaney shares his insights about popular science, psychology, and how we think, offering analysis that resonates in today’s most important conversations.

McRaney’s work has been featured in Politico, Salon, Boing Boing, The Atlantic, and many others. He hosts the podcast You Are Not So Smart, interviewing scientists who study the psychology of reasoning. As CEO of the School of Thought, and advisor to The Alliance for Decision Education, he is helping build a national movement to integrate critical thinking and productive disagreement into education and public discourse.

McRaney's diverse body of work was honored with The Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Excellence in Science Journalism Award. McRaney is an inspiring thought leader, and his science-backed and practical takeaways make a major impact on audiences of all kinds.

Past Hosts Include:

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

Evanta
Apellis Pharmaceuticals

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His content was, as expected, top-notch and received fantastically well. He was incredibly generous with his time. He also graciously gave individual attention to everyone who approached him after his keynote. Many of our attendees, sponsors, and staff mentioned to me that they felt he genuinely connected with them. - Evanta, a Gartner Company

”

David McRaney | Internet Archive - Get Sharable Link

David McRaney | Internet Archive

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Now

Science journalist David McRaney and philosopher of mind Marc Slors: How Minds Change | RadBoud Reflects

David McRaney: The importance of listening in guide for changing minds l ABCNL

How brains turn noise into signal, chaos into order, electrical spikes into meaning, and how new tech can expand subjective reality | You Are Not So Smart

Missing what’s missing: How survivorship bias skews our perception | TEDxJackson

You Are Not So Smart | Skeptics Track

Talks & Conversations with David McRaney

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How Minds Change

How do our beliefs and opinions change so drastically from one period of time to another?

DAVID MCRANEY has uncovered and woven together the latest research across fields of psychology—research that reveals that even though it seems like real change takes generations to become visible, it can happen within a lifetime, within minutes. McRaney explores changes big and small, from gun control and marijuana legalization, to the changes we experience every day. He reveals new ways we can see and bring about change in our individual lives, at work, at home, and in our personal relationships.

Bringing an audience member up on stage during his presentation, McRaney demonstrates a "guided metacognition technique" to showcase the flexibility of human thinking.

You Are Unaware of How Unaware You Are

Being a person is hard, so every copy of the human brain comes pre-installed with a collection of self-delusions to help get you out of bed and keep you sane. Whether it's your battle with procrastination, your fanatical devotion to a particular brand or political party, or your tendency to fall for quackery, there is a lot you can learn from science about how you salve cognitive dissonance and live in the shadow of fictional personal narratives. Author of the book You Are Not So Smart, DAVID MCRANEY, takes you on a tour of the cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and invisible heuristics you use every day to make sense of the world. From stories about how Benjamin Franklin turned a hater into a fan, how Bill Clinton used to wear a magical amulet, to how getting picked last can make it impossible to resist chocolate chip cookies, McRaney takes his audience through a fun and funny tour of the most interesting research in psychology in an attempt to better understand the mental stumbling blocks littered through the normal human mind. The end result, he hopes, is a shared sense of humility that can help make life better for both individuals and institutions.