Social Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies traces 15 ground-breaking studies by researchers such as Asch, Festinger, Milgram, Sherif, Tajfel, and Zimbardo to re-examine and reflect on their findings and engage in a lively discussion of the subsequent work that they have inspired. Revisiting the Classic Studies is a series of texts that introduces readers to the studies in psychology that changed the way we think about core topics in the discipline today. It provokes students to ask more interesting and challenging questions about the field by encouraging a deeper level of engagement, both with the details of the studies themselves and with the nature of their contribution. Edited by leading scholars in their field and written by researchers at the cutting edge of these developments, the chapters in each text provide details of the original works and their theoretical and empirical impact, and then discuss the ways in which thinking and research has advanced in the years since the studies were conducted.

Social Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies is brought together by some of the world’s leading voices in this rich and historically significant sub-field of psychology. Since the end of the second world war, numerous studies have entered the canon of what we now understand to be ‘classical’, from Milgram’s ‘shocking’ obedience study, to Latane and Darley’s bystander intervention studies to Zimbardo’s now famous, controversial Stanford Prison experiment. This title provides a telescopic lens back to the past when investigations first began, then to the present day when new light is shining on these key pieces of research, to present a contemporary assessment of all aspects of social behavior.