The Winner Effect

Exploring the neuroscience of success and failure

by Ian H. Robertson, Ph.D.

Can Your Posture Make You Feel in Control and Less Stressed?

Fake it till you make it: Research shows that adopting the trappings of being top dog—by an expansive posture for instance—boosts testosterone and hence triggers feelings of confidence. Power poses like this even lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. So pay attention to your posture and make sure you aren't sabotaging your confidence by low power stances. Read More

What Two Things Most Shape our Lives? Love and Attention

Love and attention shape our lives more profoundly than anything else. Experience physically reshapes our brains, but only if attended to and attention is a set of skills which have to be shaped in children by a loving carer. Emotional problems disrupt attention and can cause cognitive and learning problems, while poor attention makes it hard to control emotions. Read More

Genetics as Social Work? A Thought Is as Real as an Atom.

Many billions of dollars more are spent in biological research into mental disorder than in psychological or social research, yet biological research has largely failed to produce new treatments. Psychology is no less 'real' than physics or genetics and real progress in finding new treatments will only come when biologists, psychologists and social scientists pull together Read More

Margaret Thatcher UK Death Celebrations Reveal Sick Society

The widespread public celebrations of Margaret Thatcher's death by some sections of the UK population reveal a dangerous loss of one of humanity's most basic social instincts, which is to show respect or reverence for the extinction of a human consciousness. Would the death of a key figure on either side of USA's acrid political divide yield similar responses? Read More

Women, Power and Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher showed that the limits to women's power and leadership are social, not biological. But she also showed that women are almost as vulnerable to the cognitively and emotionally distorting effects of power. Read More

The North Korean Dictator Is Behaving Rationally

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un is behaving rationally. The survival of his dictatorship depends on maintaining a sense of threat from the outside world, and empowering his impoverished people with images of military power and nuclear attack. But absolute power distorts rational judgment and there is a real risk of miscalculation. Read More

The Lazy Doctor and the Drunk Electrician

ADHD is being grossly over diagnosed, with around one in five US high school students having been labelled with this disorder. The adolescent brain is uniquely malleable and any drugs can produce long term changes - no-one knows what these might be in the future. Drugging the adolescent brain without good medical cause is like having a drunk electrician rewire your house. Read More

What the Pope’s Resignation Tells Us About His Brain

One of the less commonly recognized effects of age on the brain is a diminished ability to recognize your own errors, leading to an impaired ability to be aware of your own reduced capacities. Pope Benedict's decision to resign is a remarkable demonstration of self control and intact cognitive functionin someone who holds enormous power, the first pope since 1415 to do so. Read More

The Inauguration of a Black President

For the second time in history, a black man is being publically inaugurated as US president. Hopefully, supporters and opponents will come together to celebrate a democratic system working well, and that a slowly improving economy will raise peoples’ mood. But there can be little doubt that the fact that he is African-American fuels bitterness for some. Read More

Brain Vacations: Stress, Boredom and Travel

Life is a balancing act between over- and under-stimulation and vacations may reduce stressful stimulation or give our brains a nourishing boost of novelty. Novelty stimulates the brain and travelling with a purpose as I did recently, in the footsteps of the great Italian painter Caravaggio, left me with more vivid memories than other journeys I have made. Read More

Psychology of the Fiscal Cliff

On Tuesday the world may tip over the Fiscal Cliff and plunge into a new global recession. If this happens, the psychology of the relationship between President Obama and Republican representatives will have played a part in the disaster. Read More

School Shootings Solved Forever

In 1996 there was a shooting at an elementary school in Scotland. 16 children ages 5-6 were killed, along with one teacher. The following year, the UK banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of caliber. There have been no school shootings since. Read More

The Weapons of Male Violent Fantasy

On the same day as 20 children and five teachers were murdered in Connecticut, 22 children in a Chinese elementary school were stabbed but none died. Male violent fantasies are common and are nurtured by violent games and media but seldom enacted, too seldom to be predicted. Easy access to assault weapons means a high death rate and the only solution is to limit access. Read More

What 3 E's of New York Changed My Brain?

Big city stimulation can rejuvenate your brain neurologically by the chemical effects of excitation, expectation and empowerment. Novelty is one of the most potent of brain-changing substances, acting via the chemical messenger noradrenaline to stimulate new brain connections and even new brain cells. How do we capture New York's recipe for other cities in the world? Read More

A New Pharaoh and the Fiscal Cliff

The fiscal cliff conflict may annoy us but democratic checks and balances act as antidotes to the inevitable effects of power on leaders' brains. Unfettered power's neurological effects include reduced self-awareness as well as a loss of judgment, narcissism and a belief in one's indispensability. Egypt's President Morsi is at risk of this illness. Read More

The Power Struggle of Relationships

Why do some otherwise decent people treat their partners badly? One answer is that they become corrupted by the power of holding the emotional cards in the relationship. Power makes us see others as objects, and that can result in contempt. Contempt triggers ill-treatment and then cognitive dissonance rationalizes it by blackening the partner's character. Read More

Petraeus, Sex and the Aphrodisiac of Power

Power is a potent drug with aphrodisiac properties for both leaders and the admirers who cluster around them. We will lose many fine leaders if we condemn them for slips in self-control caused by power. Read More

The Racial Presidential Race

Racial attitudes may determine who becomes president in a highly polarised contest. Though Obama's achievements may have shaped the brains of millions of Americans, reducing the unconscious prejudices of some, ultimately democracy should be decided on rational decisions about policies and not unconscious gut responses. Read More

Obama, Romney, Should Clench Left Hands Tonight

Obama appeared detached and non-fluent in the first debate, Romney rather too racked-up and equally non-fluent in the second. Top sports people also sometimes inexplicably perform badly in moves or shots that they have practiced thousands of times. But they can control this by – would you believe it – clenching a fist? Read More

Why Romney Lost the Debate: Choking and Anxiety

Mitt Romney so desperately wants to be president that his over-working dopamine reward network activity made him "choke," and an increase in the stress hormone cortisol interfered with his mental agility in last night's debate. Read More

Why Lance Armstrong Is Still a Hero

Lance Armstrong's doping was unacceptable but that should not detract from the incredible achievement of conquering advanced cancer in this way. Very few people who achieve great things do so without creating casualties along the way and we must condemn the sin but no necessarily the sinner. Read More

Obama's Bowed Head, Averted Eyes and Blue Tie

Obama's bowed head, averted eyes and blue tie lost him the debate. In contrast, Mitt Romney stood erect, challenged with his gaze and dominated in a primitive way with his red tie. All three increase testosterone, aggression, motivation and mental sharpness. They signal one thing—dominance. Read More

Three Reasons Why Obama Should Win The Debate

Barack Obama's successes in the polls recently, and Mitt Romney's mis-steps, will affect their performance in tonight's debate because success tunes the functioning of the key brain areas needed for such mental nimbleness. Read More

Predator Drones, Empathy, and the President

Anyone who holds power will be changed by it, whether in a one to one relationship or as president of the USA. President Obama showed a decline in empathy over his term as president and Mitt Romney also struggled with empathy. Read More

God, Power, and Ahmadinejad

Political leaders who believe they are guided by God pose major problems. Democracy dilutes the effect of power on the brain, but when God trumps democratic constraints on power, then there is enormous danger. Read More

Mitt Romney's 47% Victims

Did Mitt Romney just blow the election in his drive for cognitive consistency? Read More

Barack Obama, Overachiever?

Highly successful parents can undercut their children's achievement motivation. Read More

‘We Built It’: The Neuroscience of Success

Why Barack Obama's phrase: 'You didn't build it' may have hurt so much Read More

Did Anders Breivik Train Himself to Become A Sociopath?

Anders Breivik is not insane, but he did consciously train his emotions so he could commit his mass murder Read More

Why Do Decent People Bully?

The bullying of 68-year-old bus monitor Karen Klein by a group of teenage schoolchildren reached international prominence and led to widespread disgust at the teenagers' behavior. Several of the children expressed apparently genuine remorse afterwards. But why do they behave in this way? Read More