Great expectations: How you can train your brain to stick with healthier habits

Is it possible to train your brain so new year resolutions are easier to keep? Yes, says an award-winning science writer who believes it starts by examining the assumptions we make about ourselves

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Plenty of new year’s resolutions will already have fallen by the wayside as our best intentions come up against the cold reality of the effort involved. But what if we could train our brains to make change easier? In his new book The Expectation Effect, David Robson examines how we often make assumptions about ourselves that shape our health and wellbeing and how reframing the way we view the future can have a remarkable effect on our health, happiness and productivity.

Robson takes the idea of the placebo effect — when people taking inert sugar pills experience the benefits of the drug they believe they are taking — and, backed up by significant scientific research, applies it across all areas of life.