Ideas worth spreading

TEDGlobal 2005

July 2005

|5.7M views

Why we make bad decisions

Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Psychologist; happiness expert

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Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong -- a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly funny book, Stumbling on Happiness.