I had the pleasure of attending the Think Again! The Science of Wellbeing talk recently and if I had to describe it in one word it would be eye-opening. Hosted by Claudia Hammond, the event featured three psychology professors from the University of Sussex, Professor Cartwright-Hatton, Dr Campbell-Meiklejohn and Professor Forrester.

Think Again! The Science of Wellbeing talk explored various facets of psychological wellbeing, blending humour, stories, and fascinating studies to keep the audience thoroughly entertained and educated.

In the first half, Professor Cartwright-Hatton showed off her artistic skills through her caveman story, whilst keeping it educational. She detailed why hormones like adrenaline and responses like anxiety and the flight or fight response exist, attributing it to the need for survival over 10,000 years ago.

Dr Campbell-Meiklejohn focused more on antidepressants and revealed surprising information, such as the fact that scientists don’t know why antidepressants work and that they only work on half the people who take them, and that it takes six weeks to know whether the medication is working or not. His research suggests that they might be working by changing the way our brains react to sensations from inside our bodies.

To end the first half, the audience participated in a family feud style game, called phobia feud, with Professor Forrester. The audience guessed the most common phobias as decided by the British public. The fear of heights, fear of spiders, fear of snakes and fear of public speaking were the most popular phobias, three of which had clear and obvious evolutionary links, however the fear of public speaking appeared as an outlier. Professor Forrester explained through this game that fear of public speaking had a more covert link to humans thousands of years ago, and that it was linked to the fact that if you were alone, you were more likely to die.

I also had the chance to participate in a Google form that tested our recollection skills with questions about the contents of the first half, but also about things that hadn’t or were yet to be addressed. I managed to get four out of six answers right! After a Q&A involving the audience, we had a short break and when we returned, we were treated to another story by Professor Cartwright-Hatton.

For the second-half Professor Cartwright-Hatton told us a story involving villagers, a volcano and the need for food. This story showed how fears can be exaggerated over time. It also served as an introduction to latent inhibition, a way to prevent phobias occurring in children.

Dr Campbell-Meiklejohn explored the topic of empathy with us. His evidence seemed to show that people seemed to care more about tragedies in their home countries than they did when similar events happened in a different country, something I found incredibly interesting. But could this have been on purpose? He went on to talk about how his lab is now conducting a study of the brain to see if our goals will change how much empathy we feel (if you are interested in participating in this study, you can contact PhD student Carmen McClean-Daoust via email).

Professor Forrester further expanded on the fear of public speaking and talked about how we might not want to share our feelings after identifying them because of the fear of being socially ostracised. She then talked about using thermal imaging to identify anxiety and self-regulation. She presented examples of herself, test subjects and an example from someone in the crowd to show how anxiety and self-regulation looks thermally and how it is different for everybody. Furthermore, we saw the thermal levels of a gorilla doing a puzzle to get a nut out, a mother ape who had lost her child coming across an orphan, and others. She highlighted that one of the limitations of thermal imaging, however, was that they couldn’t tell whether what they were seeing was positive or negative.

All in all, I found this night truly fascinating. The combination of educational stories, interactive games, and scientific discussions made for an unforgettable experience. I walked away from this event as a more informed and enlightened person.