How to Overcome Social Anxiety | Dr. Nick Epley

Dr. Nick Epley, PhD, is a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago and a leading expert on the science of social connection. We discuss how seemingly small daily interactions with strangers (as well as with people we know) can meaningfully improve our mental and physical health. Dr. Epley also explains how to reduce social anxiety using simple and easily accessible science-supported tools. We also discuss the data on assumptions — both the ones we and others make — and why so often those are wrong when it comes to social dynamics.

Articles

• Social Cognition Unbound: Insights Into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization (Current Directions in Psychological Science)
• Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: the cultural intelligence hypothesis (Science)
• Egocentrism over e-mail: can we communicate as well as we think? (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)
• The Sound of Intellect: Speech Reveals a Thoughtful Mind, Increasing a Job Candidate's Appeal (Psychological Science)
• The Humanizing Voice: Speech Reveals, and Text Conceals, a More Thoughtful Mind in the Midst of Disagreement (Psychological Science)
• High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
• Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: happy and unhappy people (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)

Books

• A Little More Social by Nicholas Epley

Other Resources

• Into the Wild
• Chimp Empire
• 100 days of Rejection
• What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection (TED Talk)

People Mentioned

• Karl Deisseroth: professor of bioengineering and psychiatry, Stanford University
• Jane Goodall: primatologist, ethologist
• Juliana Schroeder: professor in management of organizations, UC Berkeley
• Elizabeth Dunn: professor of psychology, University of British Columbia
• Daniel Kahneman: professor of psychology, Princeton; Nobel laureate
• Angus Deaton: professor of economics, Princeton; Nobel laureate
• John Cacioppo: social neuroscientist, University of Chicago
• Eddie Vedder: musician, singer-songwriter
• Robert Sapolsky: professor of biology, Stanford University
• Stefan Hoffman: professor of translational clinical psychology, University of Marburg
• Jia Jiang: known for 100 Days of Rejection project
• Ben Barres: neuroscientist, Stanford University
• Eddie Chang: neurosurgeon, UCSF
• Cameron Hanes: bow hunter, podcaster