Your expectations and beliefs matter. Science journalist David Robson, author of The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World highlights research showing how negative views on aging impact how someone actually ages, and other ways expectations influence you.

We discuss:

How attitudes about aging influence the aging process

Ways in which expectations & beliefs affect our health, happiness and well-being

How expectations color what we see – literally and figuratively

The role that the expectations of other people plays in your life

How contagious toxic beliefs can be, but how the Framingham Heart Study shows the flip side

The research that surprised him the most

The benefits of multigenerational relationships versus age segregation

The pros and cons of approaching life with low expectations so you won't be disappointed

Practical ways to harness the power of expectations – and avoid the downsides

David Robson joins us from London.

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Bio

David Robson is an award-winning science writer specialising in the extremes of the human brain, body and behaviour.

After graduating with a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University, he worked as a features editor at New Scientist for five years, before moving to BBC Future, where he was a senior journalist for five years. His writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Atlantic, Aeon, Men’s Health and many more outlets. In 2021, David 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.

David’s first book, The Intelligence Trap, was published in 2019, and received worldwide media attention. His second book The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life, will be published in the USA and Canada on 15 February 2022. It is “a journey through the cutting-edge science of how our mindset shapes every facet of our lives, revealing how your brain holds the keys to unlocking a better you”.

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For More on David Robson

Website

The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World

Follow on Twitter

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Everyday Vitality – Dr. Samantha Boardman

Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross

Can You Grow Younger? – Marta Zaraska

The Power of Fun – Catherine Price

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Wise Quotes 

On the Impact of Negative Beliefs About Aging

"This research was so compelling to me - it's actually the reason I wrote the book. I've been looking into the expectation effect for a while and then I came across these studies on on the implications for aging and it just felt like it was something that deserved a whole book rather than a magazine feature article. And just to give some background, the expectation effect concerns how our beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies through changes to our behavior and our physiology. And the research on aging really demonstrates this beautifully. So that's shown that people who have a negative belief about aging - who associate aging with a kind of inevitable decline with disability and with a lack of independence - that they actually age much more quickly. Their actual biological aging is accelerated. And this can be seen right down to the cellular level. So the length of the protective caps at the ends of the chromosomes for example, these telomeres,