Daniel Gilbert (psychologist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Daniel Gilbert.

Daniel Todd Gilbert (born November 5, 1957) is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a social psychologist who is known for his research (with Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia) on affective forecasting, with a special emphasis on cognitive biases such as the impact bias. He is the author of the international bestseller Stumbling on Happiness, which won the 2007 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books.

At the age of 19, Gilbert was a high school dropout, father, and working at night to be a science fiction writer. In an attempt to improve his writing skills, he travelled to the local community college to enroll in a writing class. After the long ride to the college, he was told that the writing class was full, so he decided to enroll in the only open course: Psychology.^[1]

Gilbert has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the Harvard College Professorship, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, TIME, and others. His short stories have appeared in Amazing Stories and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, as well as other magazines and anthologies.