Tom Gilovich - The Power of Investing in Experiences vs. Material Possessions

What's the Big Idea with Andrew Horn

Thomas Gilovich is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research. He specializes in the study of everyday judgment and reasoning, psychological well-being, and self-assessment. In addition to his articles in scientific journals, Dr. Gilovich is the author of How We Know What Isn’t So (Free Press), Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes (Simon and Schuster, with Gary Belsky), Social Psychology (W.W. Norton, with Dacher Keltner, Serena Chen, and Richard Nisbett), and The Wisest One in the Room (The Free Press, with Lee Ross).

Dr. Gilovich is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his PhD in Psychology from Stanford University.

In this episode we dive into the psychology behind why people are happier when they invest in experiences over material possessions. Being one of 4 principles to live by to advance personal happiness, we focus on things people can simply DECIDE to do today, to make themselves happier.