16 June 2017

Can science explain that eerie sensation of having seen it all before? Colorado State University psychologist Anne Cleary is proving that it can. I interviewed her about her research for TED’s Ideas site in June 2017:

Most of us know the feeling. You’re introduced to someone, you watch a new movie, or you walk down a street in an unfamiliar city, and then suddenly, you’re struck by the uncanny sensation that you’ve been through this all before. You know it’s impossible — there’s no way you could have encountered this person, film or street — yet it all seems so familiar. We call this “déjà vu,” a French phrase meaning “already seen,” first used in the early 20th century. Some researchers estimate that two-thirds of the population has experienced this phenomenon, which also may be accompanied by the conviction that you know what will happen next.

Keep reading at TED Ideas.