Daniel Todd Gilbert was born on November 5, 1975 in America. He is an American social psychologist as well as a writer. He is working as the Edgar Pierce Professor in the Psychology department at Harvard University. He is also known for his research on affective forecasting in collaboration with Timothy Wilson of University of Virginia.

He wrote the international bestseller ‘Stumbling on Happiness’, which has been further translated into more than 30 languages worldwide. It also won the 2007 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books. He has also given three very popular Ted Talks.

Early Life

When Gilbert was 19 years old, he dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of being a science fiction writer. He had a clear goal ahead of him and to take stepping stones towards he, he thought of improving his writing skills. For the same, he went to a local community college to enroll himself in a creative writing class.

Unfortunately, the class was already full. So he enrolled in the only class that was available to him – Introduction to Psychology. He eventually graduated from the University of Colorado, Denver, with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in the year 1981. He then completed his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Department of Psychology, Princeton University in the year 1985. He was appointed as a faculty member in the Harvard University in 1985 and he has been employed there ever since.

Family Profile

Daniel Gilbert married Marilynn Oliphant and together they have a son and two grandchildren. They currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.