Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There: Cass R. Sunstein and Ayelet Fishbach, Ph.D.

It’s common to feel jaded and unexcited by what many consider the mundane in our day to day lives. Years into a dream job, a happy relationship, or a beloved apartment, the very things that once thrilled us can take on the ho hum. We also get used to the terrible: corruption, lies, dirty air, misinformation, toxic relationships.
But what if we could find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also to the terrible things you stopped noticing and so don’t try to change? In Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There professors Cass R. Sunstein and Tali Sharot, Ph.D. share with readers a groundbreaking study of how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives. The key to this disruption-to seeing, feeling, and noticing again-is change. By temporarily changing your environment, changing the rules, changing the people you interact with-or even just stepping back and imagining change-you regain sensitivity, allowing you to identify more clearly the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.
Prof. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and is the nation’s most-cited legal scholar. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School for 27 years, and for the past fifteen years, he has been at the forefront of behavioral economics. His book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, coauthored with Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler, was a national bestseller. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; since that time, he has served in the US government in multiple capacities.
Prof. Sunstein will be in conversation with Ayelet Fishbach, Ph.D. (FAN ’22), the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and the author of the award-winning book Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. She is the past president of the Society for the Science of Motivation and the International Social Cognition Network.