Mike Carruthers

You can't stay outraged forever, so you just stop noticing it.

The word is habituate.

We habituate to things.

We stop noticing things.

And it's really interesting what our natural tendency to habituate does to us.

And I suspect you've never really stopped to think about it.

So now you can, along with my guest, Tali Sherritt.

Tali is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and at MIT.

And she is founder and director of the Effective Brain Lab.

She's co-author of a book called Look Again, The Power of Noticing What Was Always There.

Hi, Tali.

Welcome to Something You Should Know.

So explain a little more about our tendency to habituate.

Well, you probably have to imagine that maybe it plays a role.

I mean, if something horrible happens to you, your child dies or something, you've got to find a way to get on with your life.

And by habituating or by being able to accept that, I guess that makes it easier.

I'm sure everybody's had that experience of getting something new and exciting like a car.

Or, you know, I remember when I got my house, the house I live in now.

When I first walked into it to look at it, I just, you know, I knew it.

For me, this was a great house, and I wanted this house.