Lectures

I give lectures about attention, about science, and about the psychology of sexual orientation and gender identity. Contact me at a.zivony@sheffield.ac.uk to organise an in-person or online talk. All proceeds go to funding research about attention or about prejudice.

All lectures are accessible to non-scientists, to people interested in empirical research, in social research, or in sexual orientations and gender identities. I gave talks online, in classrooms, pubs, retirement centers, offices, and once even in a high-security prison.

Why are we always distracted?

Do you ever find yourself distracted? Of course you do.

In this talk, we will learn why. Starting from our evolutionary past to smartphone usage and videogames, we will learn about the cognitive psychology of attention in everyday life, and the underlying causes of distraction. Through experiments that demonstrate the limits of attention, we will find out if these limits are hard-wired, or if whether there is anything we can do to help us overcome them.

This is a scientifically-informed, yet practical and highly entertaining. I gave this talk over 40 times to widely different crowds in various venues - from pubs, offices, schools to retirement homes, and once even in a maximum security prison. It works in person as well as an online talk.

Testimonials

“Alon gave several science pub-talks organized by WIZE. WIZE is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to create a rich and intellectual entertainment culture, by means of organizing scientific lectures in local bars. Alon’s lecture was both professional and comprehensive. It broadly reviewed the topic of attention, its limitations, and the ways to tackle them. Alon’s lecture was both informative and interesting, and was designed in a gradual manner that explained and exemplified the various concepts, one at a time. Alon managed to engage the audience and enrich their knowledge of attention, while giving them tools to improve their attention in everyday life. We were very happy to have Alon as our guest.“

“Alon’s lecture is fascinating and innovative. It opens new ways of thinking about attention. It also provides relevant and comprehensive to any person who’s having trouble being attentive for long and how to deal with such difficulties. This lecture is a must for everybody! Highly recommended!”

Tali Asher, Education officer, Ayalon Prison

10 simple rules for socially responsible science

Ethic boards all around the world regulate scientific studies to reduce risk for individual participants. At the same time, little consideration is given to how science can cause indirect harm to broad social groups. In the current talk we will discuss the difficulties of mitigating indirect harm in science, and propose straightforward steps to make science more socially responsible.

The psychological science of sexual orientation and gender identity

Scientists have been trying to classify sexual orientations and gender identities into neat categories since the 19 th century, to no avail. In this 50-minute-long talk, we will ask: is this endeavour ever likely to succeed? Do we simply need better tools, or was the enterprise doomed to fail to begin with? We will examine how social norms bias the way that scientists interpret their findings and discuss the ethical ramifications of research into LGBTQ+ identities.