Dr. Jamil Zaki: How to Cultivate a Positive, Growth-Oriented Mindset

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Jamil Zaki, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Laboratory, and the author of the new book Hope for Cynics. We discuss cynicism and its healthier, more adaptive alternative, healthy skepticism, and how embracing healthy skepticism can enhance both our emotional and physical health.

We discuss the data on how cynicism affects us as individuals and in relationships, causing lower levels of happiness, poorer physical health, and reduced creativity, trust, and collaboration. He also explains novel data-supported tools that we can use to shift ourselves towards a more informed yet more positive worldview and how to adopt a mindset of “hopeful skepticism” — the ideal stance to navigate life.

Dr. Zaki offers listeners a positive, hopeful view of humanity grounded in cutting-edge research from his laboratory and other top laboratories. He also offers science-supported protocols to navigate relationships in person and online better.

Articles

• Cardiovascular Responses during Speech: Does Social Support Mediate the Effects of Talking on Blood Pressure?' (Journal of Language and Social Psychology)
• Broken Bodies, Broken Spirits: How Poor Health Contributes to A Cynical Worldview (European Journal of Personality)
• A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype Content: Competence and Warmth Respectively Follow From Perceived Status and Competition (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)
• The Cynical Genius Illusion: Exploring and Debunking Lay Beliefs About Cynicism and Competence (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Proposed hostility and Pharisaic-virtue scales for the MMPI (Journal of Applied Psychology)
• Ode to the sea: Workplace Organizations and Norms of Cooperation (National Bureau of Economic Research)
• Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups (Science)
• Do people trust too much or too little? (Journal of Economic Psychology)
• Overperception of moral outrage in online social networks inflates beliefs about intergroup hostility (Nature Human Behaviour)
• Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk (Econometrica)
• Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking (PLoS ONE)
• Intuitive Prosociality (Current Directions in Psychological Science)
• Undersociality: miscalibrated social cognition can inhibit social connection (Trends in Cognitive Sciences)
• Are politically diverse Thanksgiving dinners shorter than politically uniform ones? (PLoS ONE)
• Belief in the Utility of Cross-Partisan Empathy Reduces Partisan Animosity and Facilitates Political Persuasion (Psychological Science)

Books

• The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
• Awe by Dacher Keltner

Other Resources

• Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot
• Upworthy (Instagram)
• Bluesky
• Joel Sartore (Instagram)
• National Geographic Photo Ark
• Nature is Metal (Instagram)
• BBC's Planet Earth
• The Work of Byron Katie
• A Practical Guide to Hopeful Skepticism by Jamil Zaki

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Asi Wind: What Magic & Mind Reading Reveal About the Brain
• David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength

People Mentioned

• Kurt Vonnegut: American author
• Phil Tetlock: Professor of Psychology, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Thomas Hobbes: English philosopher
• Deborah Gordon: Professor of Biology, Stanford University
• Amanda Ripley: American journalist
• Pema Chödrön: American Buddhist teacher, author
• Byron Katie: American author
• Mina Cikara: Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
• Robb Willer: Professor of Sociology, Stanford University
• Emile Bruneau: Neuroscientist, peace activist