Steve Fleming
Special guest
Steve Fleming is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Experimental Psychology, and Group Leader at the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry. He holds degrees in Psychology and Physiology (BA Hons, University of Oxford) and Cognitive Neuroscience (PhD, UCL), and subsequently pursued postdoctoral training at New York University.
Steve's research lab (http://metacoglab.org) pursues studies on the neuroscience of both metacognition and subjective experience. He has developed computational frameworks which generate new hypotheses about the brain basis of conscious experience. Much of the research in the lab uses computational models to ask how subjective variables (such as confidence and awareness reports) vary together with neural and behavioral measures.
Steve's research has been recognised by awards including the British Academy Wiley Prize in Psychology (2016), the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Psychology (2018), the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal (2019), and election as a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (2023). He has a long-standing interest in the potential for consciousness and metacognition in AI systems, and in 2023 received a major European Research Council grant “ConsciousComputation” to develop computational accounts of human conscious experience. In 2025 he was awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society for tackling foundational questions about the neurobiology of conscious experience, and advancing our understanding of the neural and computational basis of metacognition.
Steve has conducted wide-ranging explorations of the role of self-awareness in politics, climate change, leadership, decision-making and education. He has delivered training courses and lectures on the science of self-awareness to blue-chip companies including Slaughter and May.
His 2021 book Know Thyself: The New Science of Self-Awareness has been translated into 7 languages and was featured in the Financial Times, The New Yorker and on the cover of New Scientist magazine. He has featured in high-profile podcasts (including Sam Harris’ Making Sense) and has written articles for New Scientist, Scientific American, Financial Times and Aeon, among other outlets (http://metacoglab.org/book)
Steve Fleming has been a guest on 1 episode.
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70: Special Series Episode 2: Metacognition and Judgment
October 5th, 2026 | 39 mins 10 secs
barry schwartz, cristine legare, dan mcadams, dilip jeste, emotions, eranda jayawickreme, exemplars, gord pennycook, happiness, interventions, judgment, judith glück, justin brienza, kristján kristjánsson, laurie paul, meaning, measuring wisdom, metacognition, monika ardelt, narratives, philosophy, psychology, purpose, reasoning, social science, steve fleming, thomas costello, training ethan kross, well being, wisdom
Welcome to a five-episode special series built around the first Annual Review of Psychology chapter on wisdom since 2011.
Episode 2: Metacognition and Judgment (with Gord Pennycook, Steve Fleming, and Thomas Costello)
Is thinking harder always the key to making better decisions, or can it sometimes make things worse? Gord Pennycook, Steve Fleming, and Thomas Costello join Igor and Charles to explore what happens when we start thinking about our own thinking. Gord reveals why intelligence and rationality aren't the same thing, and why simply thinking more isn't necessarily the answer, Steve takes us inside the machinery that helps us monitor and regulate our decisions, and Thomas explores what intellectual humility is, how we might recognize it, and why being confident about our own competence can be so misleading. Along the way, Igor and Charles uncover a three-part cycle at the heart of wise judgment: seeking input, resolving conflicts, and monitoring what happens next. So what does it take to become better at knowing what we know, and what we don't?