David Robson
@davidarobson
Award-winning science writer and author of The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect, and The Laws of Connection (Canongate/Pegasus). davidarobson.substack.com
Amazing view of a humming bird moth in my garden this morning! Have never seen one before
I’ve written a little newsletter to accompany my @aeon.co piece. “As my communication with my mother became increasingly fractured, so did my recollections of my childhood and adolescence.” open.substack.com/pub/davidaro...
I found this insight especially interesting: “The consensus on someone’s appeal quickly falls apart as soon as people get to know them… If I think you’re hot, someone agrees with me a mere 53% of the time… Mere weeks after potential romantic partners meet each other, hotness loses its magnetic pull”
This bilingual podcast is the first time I've given an interview in Spanish about my work! The perfectionist in me hates hearing my mistakes and hesitation, but the truth is that two years ago, I could only manage tourist transactions, so this seems like a milestone. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pPd...
Don’t care what the critics are saying, I unashamedly love The Life of A Showgirl, especially the clever play on Father Figure
“While submission is transactional and involves a loss of control, when two people surrender to each other, they feel alive, empowered, accepted. They feel love.” I hugely enjoyed Love’s Labour by psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz. It’s full of wisdom on the nuances and contradictions of romance.
And different forms of meditation may help to tune the brain's position within the "critical zone" (4/5)
The critical brain theory might explain one of the primary functions of sleep (3/5)
This critical zone might be crucial for flexible thinking, creativity, and perhaps even consciousness itself. (2/5)
My latest post examines the fact that employers exploit their most loyal workers, and the reasons that we find it hard to say no to bad ideas open.substack.com/pub/davidaro...
Huge congratulations to Melissa Hogenboom for this gem! Breadwinners examines the fascinating psychology of power dynamics at work and in the home - it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to live in a fairer world. Happy publication day!
“The same person who comforts you today might criticise you tomorrow, creating more physiological damage than relationships you can simply categorise as bad and potentially avoid.” A Q&A with sociologist BK Lee on the reasons “hasslers” accelerate ageing open.substack.com/pub/davidaro...
Do you have a “hassler” in your social circle? They are the people who bring unnecessary drama - and recent research suggests that the subsequent stress can accelerate our biological ageing. I’ve just published a Q&A with the scientist behind the study davidarobson.substack.com/p/why-the-ha...
The @institutocervantes.bsky.social took a candid of me doing my Spanish exam. 😆 It’s been a tough couple of months dealing with some family issues so simply turning up felt like a small triumph.
If you drop your wallet in the street, it is more likely to be returned in Nordic countries than the rest of the world
S.K. is successful in her job, is physically attractive, and is quite extroverted. For the past 4 weeks or so, this person has felt quite sadder than normal and could not get to sleep as well as they would have in the past. Would you consider this to be depression? (1/2)
Spending an hour after work to either read, or listen to an audiobook, is one of the greatest pleasures I know.
📚It’s paperback publication day of The Laws of Connection!📚 Same words, but lower price, with some bonus FAQs. Thanks, as ever, to the lovely team at Canongate for bringing this into the world! And to everyone who has read it so far - I’ve loved hearing your experiences.
“Echoism” - named after a figure from Ovid’s Metamorphoses - is the silenced self-voice that can be the consequence of living with a narcissist. I’ve written a little about the concept in my newsletter.
Our beliefs about emotions - whether they are under our control or not - become self-fulfilling prophecies. davidarobson.substack.com/p/how-to-mas...
“I’d led a pretty hedonistic and meaningless life and was unhappy in my younger years. I was very old at 20 and feel quite young at 87… For me, this mindset has a lot to do with a change in my attitude and living a purpose-driven life.” My newsletter examines why meaning helps us live longer.
Do you see something meaningful in this image? If so, you might have more creative potential that you realise. You can find out more in my newsletter, link below, which examines the neuroscience behind Leonardo da Vinci’s method of “speculative invention”: davidarobson.substack.com/p/da-vincis-...
(In other book news, my friend and former editor Meredith Turits has written a novel, Just Want Your Here that’s funny and heart-breaking and perfectly captures the uncertainty of our quarter-life crises.)
It was inspired by Caroline Williams’ excellent new book, Inner Sense - which makes a strong case that interoception is one of the most important scientific concepts to emerge in past few decades.
My latest newsletter is all about interoception - the sense of what’s going on inside our bodies that drives our decisions, emotions and empathy, and which has big implications for mental health. davidarobson.substack.com/p/the-secret...