Biographies

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Rob Ashton is a writer who focuses on the hidden brain science of how the things we read and write influence what we think and do.

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Rob Ashton has had a life-long fascination with how the things we read and write influence what we think and do. He calls writing ‘the invisible medium’, as we fail to notice it despite doing it every day. (Text messaging, Twitter and Facebook are all writing, even if we may not think of them as such.) Crucially, he has come to realise that this reliance has wide-ranging hidden consequences, as our brains did not evolve to read and write. It explains everything from why we’re more likely to lose patience on social media to why we often find it so difficult to follow written instructions.

He’s been researching the science behind the process of reading and writing for more than six years. His research runs the gamut of cognitive and social neuroscience, cognitive and social psychology, and behavioural and neuro economics. This has given him a unique perspective on why so much of our written communication simply doesn’t work.

Rob is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded the global learning company Emphasis in 1998. That company has so far enabled over 80,000 people to make more impact with their professional writing. And its work with a huge range of the world’s top organisations has given him an unrivalled insight into the best and worst ways we communicate with each other and with the people we serve. High-profile clients include all of the Big 4 accounting firms, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley and even the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace.

Rob lives in Brighton on the south coast of England, 60 miles from London, with his wife, two teenagers, two dogs, a cat and 16 unruly chickens.