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10 Inspiring TED Talks on Intelligence and Critical Thinking

Here are 10 of the most-viewed TED talks on intelligence and critical thinking as appearing on Best Psychology Degrees.com

1. Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are – Amy Cuddy - June 2012

We are fascinated by body language. We know others judge our body language, but does it change the way we feel about ourselves? Social psychologist Amy Cuddy’s experiment shows that high-power poses can make us feel more assertive, confident, and comfortable. Our bodies change our minds. Minds change behavior. Behavior changes outcomes. And this can change our lives in meaningful ways.

2. The Power of Introverts – Susan Cain - February 2012

“Solitude matters,” author says Susan Cain, “for some people it is the air that they breathe.” From a young age, she was given the message that she needed to be less quiet and introverted. Transformative leaders in history, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Gandhi, have been self-described introverts. In her talk, Cain suggests giving introverts more freedom and more privacy (in schools and the workplace) to increase their creativity and productivity. She hopes attitudes will change regarding introversion and solitude and offers three calls for action to those who share her vision.

3. The Surprising Science of Happiness – Dan Gilbert - February 2004

If we don’t get what we want, we won’t be happy. Not the case, says psychologist Dan Gilbert. We have a “psychological immune system” that kicks in even when things don’t go our way. In an engaging and funny talk, Gilbert discusses synthetic happiness versus natural happiness. Happiness can be synthesized, but is it real?

4. The Happy Secret to Better Work – Shawn Achor - May 2011

Psychologist Shawn Achor offers a fast-paced and highly entertaining look at the link between happiness and success. He says we need to reverse the formula for happiness and success. Having more positivity in the present will create “the happiness advantage.” He shares five ways to train your brain to work more optimistically and successfully. By doing these things, we can reverse the formula and create a real revolution in education and business.

5. How To Spot a Liar – Pamela Meyer - July 2011

We’re all liars. Studies show we’re lied to anywhere between 10 to 200 times in a given day. Lying is an attempt to bridge the gap between who we are and who we want to be, says social media expert Pamela Meyer. Liespotters have scientific knowledge to spot deception, but we can all look for the red flags. In this talk, she gives us two truths about lying and shares how to go from liespotting to truth speaking to trust building.

6. Listening to Shame – Brene Brown - March 2012

“Vulnerability is not weakness,” says researcher Brene Brown, “and that myth is profoundly dangerous.” Vulnerability fuels our daily lives; it is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. It is the most accurate measure of courage. Shame is an epidemic that is highly correlated with addiction, depression, suicide, and other broken behaviors. To get out from underneath it, we have to understand how it affects us and the way we’re parenting, the way we’re working, the way we’re looking at each other. We need to learn to embrace our vulnerability and to quiet down shame.

7. The New Era of Positive Psychology – Martin Seligman - February 2004

Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, tells us his mission: Curing the mentally ill, making miserable people less miserable, and making people happier. He reveals that happiness has three different dimensions that can be cultivated – the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.

8. Want to Be Happier? Stay In The Moment – Matt Killingsworth - November 2011

More than anything in life, people want happiness. The paradox of happiness is that even though the conditions of our lives have improved dramatically, we haven’t actually gotten happier. In hopes of discovering the big causes of happiness, researcher Matt Killingsworth created an app, Track Your Happiness, that allows people to communicate feelings in real time.

9. The Pattern Behind Self-Deception – Michael Shermer - February 2010

Founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer says belief is the natural state of things; it’s uncomfortable not to believe things. Why? We have a belief in engine in our brain, our pattern-detection device. Shermer calls the process patternicity. He discusses how the brain works to find those patterns and make those connections.

10. The Origins of Pleasure – Paul Bloom - July 2011

Why do origins matter so much? Some say because we’re focused on status. But psychologist Paul Bloom believes it’s because we’re natural-born essentialists. Using examples of art, food, and sex, he shows how our responses are conditioned on our beliefs. Everything he says about pleasure applies to pain as well; pain under the right circumstances, can transform into pleasure.