Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

For fans of Thinking Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit, a groundbreaking new study of how disrupting our well-worn habits, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.

Have you ever wondered why you eventually stop feeling the socks on your feet, hearing the persistent buzz of your air conditioner, or more significantly, feeling the euphoria of new love or the devastation of loss?

To survive, your brain prioritizes what is new and different: the sudden smell of smoke, a ravenous lion running your way, or an attractive person passing by. But this adaptation can also do more harm than good in many different facets of our lives, explaining why we might stay in an abusive relationship, be susceptible to authoritarianism, or become blind to inequality and misinformation over time.

Now, Harvard Law professor, presidential advisor, and New York Times bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein and neuroscientist Tali Sharot investigate how we can disrupt these habits to reignite the sparks of joy in our lives and recognize where improvements can 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 imagining change—you regain sensitivity, allowing you to more clearly identify the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

This groundbreaking work based on decades of research in the social and psychological sciences illuminates for the first time not only the power of our habits, but the power of disrupting them, a phenomenon that sustains life on earth. In revealing the dark costs of adapting to habits, it also shows how to use and disengage from them to our advantage, making the case that our ability to adapt is one of the greatest tools we have when it comes to making our lives healthier, safer, and happier.