Profs at the Pub: The Science Behind Wonder
Best Bet
Education
Lecture/Discussion/Panel/Talk/Q&A/Seminar
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co SB
Contact Details:
Phone: 805-893-2508
Email: affiliates@ia.ucsb.edu
Website: View Website
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**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.
Date & Time
Tue, Oct 14 6:30 PM - 12:00 AM
Address (map)
137 Anacapa St F, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Venue (website)
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co SB
Profs at the Pub featuring Dr. Madeleine Gross
Presented by the UCSB Affiliates
The Science Behind Wonder
Children routinely experience wonder in everyday life, but as we age we can lose that childlike curiosity and the benefits it affords.
Dr. Madeleine Gross, a psychological researcher at UC Santa Barbara, has been researching practical strategies to help adults boost their capacity to make ordinary experiences more curiosity-provoking.
Dr. Gross will discuss the four core principles behind her approach and discuss how small shifts in mindset, attention, and perspective can make the mundane feel a bit more magical.
Her work– recently featured in The New York Times, Psyche, and the PBS broadcast Closer to Truth– explores curiosity as a catalyst for personal growth and human flourishing.
Drawing on insights from her research, Dr. Gross created a smartphone-based program in which users demonstrated measurable increases in personality-level curiosity after three weeks.
Users further showed increased creative behaviors, an increased sense of meaning in life, and decreased tendencies toward boredom.
Dr. Madeleine Gross is a leading researcher in the psychology of curiosity, creativity, and personality development.
Awarded the APA Dissertation Research Award for this research in 2021, Madeleine’s interdisciplinary approach has helped to shed light on how personality manifests in daily life and how to harness its benefits.
Through her work, Madeleine aims to encourage individuals across all stages of life to harness curiosity as a lifelong tool for richer experiences, broader perspectives, and lasting personal resilience.
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Learn more at communityrelations.ucsb.edu/ucsb-affiliates
