Hoover media fellow Shankar Vedantam spoke about his new book The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives at a seminar on Monday, March 15.
Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford University psychology professor who did research for the book, joined Vedantam in his talk.
In The Hidden Brain, Vedantam, a Washington Post science reporter, theorizes that the unconscious part of our brain exerts greater influence over our decisions than we realize. Citing a variety of situations, Vedantam noted in each how people unknowingly demonstrate bias in their decision making.
The Edwards Media Fellows Program allows print and broadcast media professionals to spend time in residence at the Hoover Institution. Media fellows have the opportunity to exchange information and perspectives with Hoover scholars through seminars and informal meetings and with the Hoover and Stanford communities in public lectures. As fellows, they have the full range of research tools Hoover offers available to them. More than 100 of the nation's top journalists have visited the Hoover Institution recently, interacting with Hoover fellows on key public policy issues. They include
- Amanda Ripley, Time magazine (in residence April 19-23)
- Mark Mazzetti, New York Times (March 29-April 2)
- Terence Samuel, The Root-Washington Post (March 29-April 2)
- Shailagh Murray, Washington Post (March 15-19)
- James Kirchick, New Republic (March 15-19)
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