What it argues
Elliot Aronson is one of the most influential social psychologists in the history of the field, and The Social Animal, first published in 1972 and now in its twelfth edition, is the textbook introduction to social psychology that has shaped how generations of students think about human behavior. It is unusual among textbooks in being genuinely readable and in presenting the subject with intellectual honesty about its complications and limitations.
The book covers the field's central findings: conformity and obedience (Milgram, Asch), attitude change and persuasion, self-justification and cognitive dissonance (Aronson was Festinger's student and expanded dissonance theory), prejudice and discrimination, aggression, attraction, and the social influence of groups. Each topic is presented through the classic experiments that defined it, with enough context to understand both what the experiment showed and why it mattered.
What it gets right
- 1.
Humans are social animals whose behavior is profoundly shaped by the presence, expectations, and actions of others — often in ways that override individual judgment and values.
- 2.
Conformity and obedience are powerful. Asch's line experiments and Milgram's shock experiments both demonstrate that most people will go against their own perceptions or values to conform to group or authority pressure.
- 3.
Cognitive dissonance is most powerful when it threatens self-concept. People are most motivated to reduce dissonance when their beliefs about being competent and moral are contradicted.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Elliot Aronson is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the most cited social psychologists in history. He is the only person to have won all three of the American Psychological Association's top awards: for distinguished scientific contributions, for teaching, and for writing. His research on cognitive dissonance extended Festinger's theory to include the central role of self-concept. He has also done influential work on jigsaw classroom education as a method for reducing prejudice in schools.
