Louis Day Hicks will very probably lose the November mayorality election, Thomas F. Pettigrew, associate professor of Social Psychology, said last night.

Pettigrew, who in the past has conducted surveys in Boston relative to Mrs. Hicks' voting strength, predicted that she "will get 45 or 46 per cent of the vote, but no more."

In Tuesday's election, Mrs. Hicks received 28 per cent of the votes. An earlier Pettigrew poll was remarkably accurate. It showed that 27 per cent of the city's voters would readily vote for Mrs. Hicks for mayor.

Pettigrew expects Mrs. Hicks's additional votes to come from the city's Italian districts, where her neighborhood school idea is popular. In the preliminary election most of these votes went to City Councilor Christopher A. Iannella, He also expects her to pick up votes that went to the other heavy losers in the preliminary--candidates whose political complexion resembles hers. "But even giving her most of these votes leaves her with about 45 per cent. She could pick up one or two more percentage points from a larger turnout," he said.

The votes that went to State Representative John Sears '52 and Edward Logue, who finished third and fourth Tuesday, should go to White he said.

Heavy support for White from such officials as Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54, state treasurer Robert Q. Crane, Mayor Collins, Sears, and probably from Logue is expected to aid his campaign. But last night at a Harvard Young Democrats meeting, Sears warned against letting Mrs. Hicks portray herself as the underdog. "This could cause great harm," Sears said.