all Daniel Gilbert stories

Do you know what makes you happy?

50443248 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:13:34 -0400

Want to know what will make you happy? Then ask a total stranger — or so says a new study from Harvard University, which shows that another person's experience is often more informative than your own best guess.

The study, which appears in the current issue of Science, was led by Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard and author of the 2007 bestseller Stumbling on Happiness, along with Matthew Killingsworth and Rebecca Eyre, also of Harvard, and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia.

Roads not taken disappear more quickly than we realize

404132862 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:58:59 -0500

Researchers have identified a key reason why people make mistakes when they try to predict what they will like.

According to the findings presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, when predicting how much we will enjoy a future experience, people tend to compare it to its alternatives—that is, to the experiences they had before, might have later, or could have been having now. But when people actually have the experience, they tend not to think about these alternatives and their experience is relatively unaffected by them.

Psychology of economics

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:53:09 -0400

The much-touted concept of "interdisciplinary collaboration" was more than a concept last week at the Eric M. Mindich Conference on Experimental Social Science. Titled "Action Research in Psychology and Economics," the conference - held at the Harvard Law School on Friday and Saturday (March 4 and 5) - was the first major event to be sponsored by Harvard's new Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Developed by Harvard Professor of Economics Sendhil Mullainathan and psychology professor Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia, the conference demonstrated how methods from psychology and economics can combine to achieve common research goals.

Scientists pursue happiness

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:34:38 -0400

"When we try to predict what will make us happy we're often wrong," says Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. "Researchers all over the world find the same predictable errors, whether the pursuit involves romance, a new car, or a sumptuous meal." Gilbert uses the results of his study of election outcomes as an example. Many Democrats insist that the re-election of George W. Bush would make them unbearably unhappy. Many Republicans maintain that the election of Howard Dean would send them and the whole country into a deep ditch of discontent for a long time to come. Gilbert compares such forecasts to a 1992 campaign when Bush squared off against Ann Richards for the governorship of Texas. Only one month after Bush won, his supporters weren't as happy as they thought they would be, and those who opposed him weren't as sad. "People are wonderful rationalizers," Gilbert points out. "They will rearrange their view of the world so it doesn't hurt as much." Anti-Bushers he interviewed said things like: "The governor of Texas really doesn't have much power" and "He wants to be president, so he's not going to do anything too dumb or crazy."