The Power of Surprise: How Your Brain Secretly Changes Your Beliefs

Surprise evolved as a mechanism to instantly change our beliefs. Here, Michael Rousell shows how surprising events produce invisible influence because they open a window to spontaneous belief change with no warning or conscious awareness. He explores and illustrates how we can use these changes to strategically enrich our lives.

Michael A. Rousell, PhD, is a teacher, psychologist, and professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University. Rousell studied life-changing events for over three decades and established his expertise by writing the internationally successful book Sudden Influence: How Spontaneous Events Shape Our Lives (2007). His pioneering work draws on research from a wide variety of brain sciences that show when, how, and why we instantly form new beliefs. He lives with his spouse in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.