Happy people live longer and healthier, but how exactly does one get happier? Dr. Zak and his team created a wearable technology that measures happiness continuously from the brain. His analysis of over 50,000 brain measurements, in current use by health insurers, corporate wellness programs, and individuals, has identified what people do to increase happiness. This talk include a specific set of actions people can take to live longer, happier, and healthier with an emphasis on behaviors by Blue Zone residents who regularly live past 100. 

Humans have been advertising for at least 5,000 years when Egyptian shops hung papyrus posters with hieroglyphs listing items for sale. Today, the average person sees 5,000 ads per day. How many are persuasive? Less than 10%. Why are we so bad at persuasion? There is a new science of persuasion, much of it developed in my academic laboratory and companies I have started. Signals in the brain now predict what people will do after a message or experience with 85% or better accuracy. Attendees will learn a 5 step process that gets people's brains to care about information so you can influence them in conversation, through advertising, and in meetings. With a little bit of science and a lot of applications, those who attend this talk will be more effective leaders, marketers, spouses and parents.

No one wants to see a bad movie or watch an exquisitely bland Super Bowl commercial, or suffer through a rage-inducing call with tech support, but it happens all the time.  There is a scientifically-grounded way to not only prevent them, but create extraordinary customer experiences.  Immersion, a neurologic state I discovered in two decades of research, identifies when the brain values an experience and and creates a desire to repeat it.  This talk reveals how to create mind-blowing experiences illustrated by the hard problems that I have helped the US government, Fortune 500 companies, and even public schools solve.  These applications show that immersion accurately predicts with 83-95% accuracy who will purchase an advertised product, why some stores handily outsell others, which movies and TV shows will be hits, and which students will remember a lesson weeks later.  While the talk based on science, it is animated by engaging narratives that show listeners how to create the extraordinary. 

In order to perform well as an employee, family member, and human being one must be physically and emotionally fit. Much is known about how to maintain one's physical health, but the science of emotional fitness has only recently emerged. This talk discusses why emotional health has been ignored for so long and why it is an essential component to reach high performance and to live a satified life. Drawing on data from Dr. Zak's laboratory as well as new wearable technologies, this talk provides practical ways to measure and monitor emotional fitness to improve one's health and happiness.

Trust is the secret ingredient of high performance organizations. Dr. Zak describes the science and applications of a management tool he developed called Ofactor that has been used by numerous organizations to increase trust between colleagues and improve the bottom line. It is based on the latest brain science developed in his lab. He describes an eight step trust-boosting program that every organization can use. In a surprising twist, he shows why high trust organizations have happier and healthier employees. It’s not rocket science, but it is neuroscience.

Read this piece and watch this video for more information.

Evolution does not promote happiness. Most creatures live on the edge of survival and do whatever it takes to get through another day. Yet, many human beings seek to be, and often are, happy. How did that happen? Dr. Paul Zak's discovery that oxytocin functions as a moral molecule, led him to investigate the biology of happiness. His experiments show that oxytocin significantly improves happiness and health. He then used himself as a test subject to "hack" his happiness. This engaging and practical talk shows how we can embrace our biology to live better, healthier, and happier lives.

Read this piece and watch this video for more information.