Stumbling on happiness
Daniel Todd Gilbert (Author)
Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? Why do patients remember long medical procedures as less painful than short ones? Why do home sellers demand prices they wouldn't dream of paying if they were home buyers? Why does the line at the grocery store always slow down when we join it? In this book, Harvard psychologist Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions. Using the latest research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert reveals what we have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there, and why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become--Publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2007
First Vintage books edition View all formats and editions
Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., New York, 2007
Nonfiction
xvii, 310 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
9781400077427, 1400077427
123754067
Foreword
Prospection. Journey to Elsewhen
Subjectivity. The view from in here ; Outside looking in
Realism. In the blind spot of the mind's eye ; The hound of silence
Presentism. The future is now ; Time bombs
Rationalization. Paradise glossed ; Immune to reality
Corrigibility. Once bitten ; Reporting live from tomorrow
Afterword
Originally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006