Daniel Gilbert is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in Psychology, summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Princeton University in 1985. Gilbert began his academic career at the University of Texas at Austin, serving as Assistant Professor from 1985 to 1990, Associate Professor from 1990 to 1995, and Professor from 1995 to 1996. In 1996, he joined Harvard University as Professor, later becoming Harvard College Professor from 2005 to 2010, and assuming the Edgar Pierce Professorship in 2013.

His research examines how people navigate the complexities of time and social life, with key interests in affective forecasting—how well individuals predict their emotional reactions to future events—intertemporal choice, social inference, judgment and decision-making, and communication. Gilbert is the author of the international bestseller Stumbling on Happiness (2006), which received the Royal Society General Book Prize and spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list. He has co-edited The Handbook of Social Psychology (4th ed., 1998; 5th ed., 2010; 6th ed., 2025) and co-authored the Psychology textbook series across six editions (2009–2022). Among his influential papers are "A wandering mind is an unhappy mind" (with M.A. Killingsworth, Science, 2010), "Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting" (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998), and "Prospection: Experiencing the future" (with T.D. Wilson, Science, 2007). Gilbert has garnered major awards, including the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (1992), the Diener Award for Outstanding Contributions to Social Psychology (2008), the William James Award (2018), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008), and honorary doctorates from Bates College (2016) and Yale University (2021). He has been voted one of Harvard's favorite professors by graduating seniors 19 times between 2005 and 2025. His TED talks have amassed over 15 million views, and he hosted the award-winning PBS NOVA series This Emotional Life.

Professional Email: gilbert@wjh.harvard.edu