Cornell Researcher, Author to Deliver Basowitz Lecture at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Thomas Gilovich, professor of psychology at Cornell University, will discuss the “Enemies of Gratitude” during the annual Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture at The University of Alabama.

Gilovich specializes in the study of everyday judgment and reasoning. He will deliver the lecture at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, in room 118 of Bibb Graves Hall.

“Why is it so easy for people to lose sight of all there is to be grateful for?” Gilovich asked. “In this talk, I will discuss two powerful ‘enemies’ of gratitude and how they might be combated – making it easier for people to feel gratitude and live up to their best selves.”

Gilovich is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld professor of psychology at Cornell and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research. In addition to his articles in scientific journals, Gilovich is the author of How We Know What Isn’t So, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, Social Psychology and the forthcoming The Wisest One in the Room.

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 Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.

The Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the UA department of psychology in memory of Basowitz, who came to UA in 1940 and remained until called into military service. Basowitz returned to Tuscaloosa in 1946 and received his undergraduate degree from UA in 1947. He went on to complete his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Princeton in 1951. Basowitz’s distinguished career included administrative roles at the National Institute of Mental Health and professor of psychology for many years at New York University. Basowitz’s lifelong friend, Professor Irving Alexander, is the donor of the Basowitz endowment.

The psychology department is part of UA’s  College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships and Goldwater Scholarships.