The Politics of Social Psychology

Social scientists have long known that political beliefs bias the way they think about, understand, and interpret the world around them. This volume explores the complex and often contentious political influences within the field of social psychology. While most scientists aspire to be dispassionate observers, this volume reveals how political biases may affect theory development, the selection of hypothesis-testing and other methodologies, data analysis, and the interpretation of findings. The contributors, scholars from social psychology and related fields, use many of the major themes in social psychological research to examine the discipline itself, including the effects of motivated reasoning, attitudes, beliefs, values, goals, ideology, and prejudice. They also present solutions that may lead towards a more depoliticized social psychology that can become a model for discourse across the social sciences.