On March 19, the Harvard Law School Library welcomed Robert Walmsley University Professor Cass Sunstein '78 for a talk on his latest book, co-authored with neuroscientist Tali Sharot, titled "Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There."
From the publisher: "[Sunstein and Sharot] investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to “dishabituate” at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth. This groundbreaking work, based on decades of research in the psychological and biological sciences, illuminates how we can reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made. 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 more clearly identify the bad and more deeply appreciate the good."
Sunstein is author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including "Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness" (with Richard H. Thaler, 2008), "#Republic: divided democracy in the age of social media" (2017), "How Change Happens" (2019) and "How to Interpret the Constitution" (2023).