Neuroscience
The New York Times has published an interview with psychologist Dan Gilbert of Harvard University, author of the best-selling "Stumbling on Happiness" which won the Royal Society science book prize last year.
Gilbert's research focuses on our knack of failing to predict how future events or experiences will make us feel - what psychologists call "affective forecasting".
We tend to think bad outcomes, such as illness or broken marriages, will be emotionally devastating, while believing that positive outcomes, such as a job promotion or winning the lottery, will leave us blissfully happy. The reality is that whatever happens in life, most of us tend to return fairly quickly to our emotional baseline. Also, according to Gilbert, so far as our happiness is open to positive influence, many of us fail to realise that it is relationships and experiences that are the most gratifying, not money or material stuff.
In the interview, Gilbert explains what led to him to pursue this line of research:
Link to Dan Gilbert's homepage.
Link to related research covered by the Digest.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Link Feast
Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week: How Mistakes Can Save Lives: One Man’s Mission to Revolutionise the NHS. Ian Leslie in The New Statesman looks at how human factors psychology from the aviation industry is...
- Using Psychology And Neuroscience To Improve Society
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (the RSA) has launched a new project that seeks to bring together all that we know about our brains and the way we think, so as to help humankind reach its full potential in a...
- We're Useless At Predicting How What Happens Will Affect Us Emotionally
When making decisions, a key factor we weigh up is how we think the outcome of our decisions will make us feel emotionally – what psychologists call postdecisional affect. The trouble is, we're useless at predicting how we'll feel. Nick Sevdalis...
- Overestimating The Impact Of Future Events
If I asked you to predict how you’d react emotionally to a given situation – say your train to work was cancelled, or if your football team were to win next Saturday – then research suggests you would overestimate its emotional effect on you. That’s...
- Pursue A Summer Research Assistant Position With Harvard University's Daniel Gilbert Lab!
Daniel Gilbert's Lab at Harvard University is accepting applications for volunteer research assistants for the summer. The ideal candidate is a motivated undergraduate or recent graduate with a keen interest in social psychology. Research experience...
Neuroscience
"I’m so blessed, it’s almost scary"
The New York Times has published an interview with psychologist Dan Gilbert of Harvard University, author of the best-selling "Stumbling on Happiness" which won the Royal Society science book prize last year.Gilbert's research focuses on our knack of failing to predict how future events or experiences will make us feel - what psychologists call "affective forecasting".
We tend to think bad outcomes, such as illness or broken marriages, will be emotionally devastating, while believing that positive outcomes, such as a job promotion or winning the lottery, will leave us blissfully happy. The reality is that whatever happens in life, most of us tend to return fairly quickly to our emotional baseline. Also, according to Gilbert, so far as our happiness is open to positive influence, many of us fail to realise that it is relationships and experiences that are the most gratifying, not money or material stuff.
In the interview, Gilbert explains what led to him to pursue this line of research:
"Within a short period of time, my mentor passed away, my mother died, my marriage fell apart and my teenage son developed problems in school. What I soon found was that as bad as my situation was, it wasn’t devastating. I went on."Link to New York Times interview with Dan Gilbert.
Link to Dan Gilbert's homepage.
Link to related research covered by the Digest.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Link Feast
Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week: How Mistakes Can Save Lives: One Man’s Mission to Revolutionise the NHS. Ian Leslie in The New Statesman looks at how human factors psychology from the aviation industry is...
- Using Psychology And Neuroscience To Improve Society
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (the RSA) has launched a new project that seeks to bring together all that we know about our brains and the way we think, so as to help humankind reach its full potential in a...
- We're Useless At Predicting How What Happens Will Affect Us Emotionally
When making decisions, a key factor we weigh up is how we think the outcome of our decisions will make us feel emotionally – what psychologists call postdecisional affect. The trouble is, we're useless at predicting how we'll feel. Nick Sevdalis...
- Overestimating The Impact Of Future Events
If I asked you to predict how you’d react emotionally to a given situation – say your train to work was cancelled, or if your football team were to win next Saturday – then research suggests you would overestimate its emotional effect on you. That’s...
- Pursue A Summer Research Assistant Position With Harvard University's Daniel Gilbert Lab!
Daniel Gilbert's Lab at Harvard University is accepting applications for volunteer research assistants for the summer. The ideal candidate is a motivated undergraduate or recent graduate with a keen interest in social psychology. Research experience...