Book
The Expectation Effect
- mentions
- 14
- people
- 5
- podcasts
- 2
- episodes
- 14
- critical mentions
- 0
Man, this blew my mind.
Chris Williamson · Modern Wisdom · Apr 2022 Listen at 47:50 What they say about it
- Recommends the book“everyone should go and read his book”3
- Praises as top read“one of the best books I've read this year”2
The best things said about it
You need to have The Expectation Effect by David Robson.
Everybody needs to go and read by the way fantastic.
Chris Williamson Modern Wisdom · Jun 2024 I would highly recommend you go and check it out.
This is one of the best books that I've read this year from David Robson.
Chris Williamson Modern Wisdom · Jul 2022 Your expectations are even more powerful than your genes.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
How it comes up
5 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Expectation Effect by David Robson is a science book exploring how human expectations, thoughts, and placebo or nocebo effects physically impact health, behavior, and daily existence across various domains. On Modern Wisdom, host Chris Williamson and multiple guests frequently recommended the text. In December 2025, Mel Robbins told Williamson that readers need the book because it would blow their face up. Williamson himself repeatedly urged listeners to pick it up, describing it as outstanding in June 2024 and noting in November 2023 that everyone should read Robson's work. In October 2022, Stuart Ritchie appeared on the show alongside the host to discuss the science writer's exploration of expectations influencing outcomes across multiple domains. During a September 2022 Q&A episode, Williamson read a listener question from someone who was loving the book and asking for similar recommendations. In July 2022, Williamson ranked it among the best books he read that year, emphasizing how it explains the way mental actions shape our physical bodies and daily existence, a sentiment he echoed while discussing the brain with Andrew Huberman that same month.
Every mention
Chris Williamson yeah I was uh I was trying to sort of correlate it to your last book the expectation effect which everybody… 10
“There's a a great book called The Expectation Effect by David Robinson. Just popular science book.”
“yeah I was uh I was trying to sort of correlate it to your last book the expectation effect which everybody needs to go and read by the way fantastic”
“there's a book called the expectation effect by David Robson and uh it's outstanding”
“so David Robson the expectation effect everyone should go and read his book”
“i'm reading the expectation effect loving it what should i read next”
“I dude, I I think that that's one of it ties in perfectly with our mutual friend David Robson's work, the expectation effect, right? Like this is the expectation effect in action.”
“so this is one of the best books that i've read this year from david robson and in it he just explains about how the actions that we have impact our daily existence”
“one of the best books I've read this year is the expectation effect by David Robson I need to so he is a science writer from the UK”
“There was um one of the things that I I think is interesting around how that link between technology and the way that we feel after we use technology um is the expectation effect which is a new book by David Robson came out couple of months ago. He's on the show. He's a fantastic science communicator.”
“I had this guy on, David Robson, who's just written a book called the expectation effect. And man, this [ __ ] blew my mind.”
Mel Robbins You need to have The Expectation Effect by David Robson. Okay. He would blow your face up. 1
“You need to have The Expectation Effect by David Robson. Okay. He would blow your face up.”
Stuart Ritchie So he wrote a book science writer very good really really good And I would highly recommend you go and chec… 1
“So he wrote a book science writer very good really really good And I would highly recommend you go and check it out uh and so he's talking about basically the placebo effect but across multiple different sorts of domains”
James Smith and there's a guy david robinson written a book called the expectation effect and in that book they got a g… 1
“and there's a guy david robinson written a book called the expectation effect and in that book they got a group of people”
Mike Israetel which led David Robson the guy that wrote the book the expectation effect to coin the term your expectation… 1
“which led David Robson the guy that wrote the book the expectation effect to coin the term your expectations are even more powerful than your genes”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“um and it was actually that finding i just thought i have to write this book now because it's like it's actually cutting people's lives by like seven and a half years like if you have this negative view of aging if you see it as this kind of period of inevitable decline and that just seems so profound it”