Daniel Gilbert is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He rose to popular prominence with the book Stumbling on Happiness, which uses social psychology to explore the ways in which humans endeavor to envision the future, and how well we can predict if we will enjoy it. His work with Tim Wilson on affective forecasting looks at the ways in which people make predictions about the emotional impact of future events. Gilbert has won many prizes, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and prizes for his excellence in teaching at Harvard. After dropping out of high school to head West, he enrolled in a community college class on psychology because the creative writing class was full. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ideas recorded on: 6/12/07