Social Psychology, 12th edition

Published by Pearson (May 27, 2026) © 2027
  • Elliot Aronson
  • Timothy D. Wilson
  • Samuel R Sommers
  • Elizabeth Page-Gould
  • Neil Lewis Jr.

Title overview

For courses in Social Psychology.

Make research relevant through a storytelling approach

Social Psychology introduces the key concepts of the field through a storytelling approach that makes research relevant. Drawing upon their extensive experience as researchers and teachers, the authors present classic studies alongside the cutting-edge research that is the future of social psychology.

The 12th Edition focuses a social psychological lens on contemporary developments worldwide. The authors examine recent topics such as social media’s role in shaping conformity, loneliness and isolation as public health concerns and more. In addition, updated research references reflect the latest in the field.

Hallmark features of this title

  • UPDATED: Try It! exercises invite students to apply specific concepts to their everyday behavior. These exercises encourage students to become more active participants in the learning process. Many of these have been updated for the 12th Edition.
  • What Do You Think? features prompt students to answer survey questions that illustrate important concepts. Accompanying writing exercises bring learning full circle.
  • Learning objectives at the beginning and end of each chapter guide students as they work through the text.
  • Key terms are defined in the margins and collected in a glossary at the end of the text.
  • Headings and subheadings keep students focused on the big picture.
  • Chapter-ending summaries wrap up the key information presented in the chapter.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: Open Science, Open Questions features highlight how the open science movement, with its calls for transparency, is shaping knowledge in social psychology.
  • NEW: People of Social Psychology features dive into the work of particular social psychologists who apply their work in different ways. These engaging features include direct advice to students from the people featured.
  • UPDATED: A revised table of contents improves the narrative arc of the text for instructors who prefer to teach in chapter number sequence. Significant updates include:
    • NEW: A fresh Chapter 3, Cultures and the Individuals Within Them explores the psychological processes that arise when people from different cultural contexts come together and interact, including coverage of how these interactions impact cultures and the people within them.
    • NEW: Chapter 4, The Self combines the content from 2 chapters from the previous edition, retaining thorough coverage of key topics like cognitive dissonance and self-esteem.
  • UPDATED: As with every revision, the 12th Edition includes numerous references to new research and fresh coverage of contemporary topics. These include the ubiquity of web-based classrooms and workplaces, the impact of recent advances in artificial intelligence upon the study of social cognition and more.

Table of contents

  1. Introducing Social Psychology
  2. Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research
  3. Cultures and the Individuals Within Them
  4. The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context
  5. Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World
  6. Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People
  7. Attitudes and Attitude Change
  8. Prejudice and Discrimination
  9. Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups
  10. Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience
  11. Helping Others
  12. Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent It?
  13. Attraction and Relationships
  • Social Psychology in Action 1: Using Social Psychology to Achieve a Sustainable and Happy Future
  • Social Psychology in Action 2: Social Psychology and Health
  • Social Psychology in Action 3: Social Psychology and the Law

Author bios

About our authors

Elliot Aronson is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz and one of the most renowned social psychologists in the world. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century. Dr. Aronson is the only person in the 120-year history of the American Psychological Association to have received all 3 of its major awards: for distinguished writing, distinguished teaching and distinguished research. Many other professional societies have honored his research and teaching as well. These include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which gave him its highest honor, the Distinguished Scientific Research award; the American Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, which named him Professor of the Year of 1989; the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, which awarded him the Gordon Allport prize for his contributions to the reduction of prejudice among racial and ethnic groups; and the William James Award from the Association for Psychological Science. In 1992, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A collection of papers and tributes by his former students and colleagues, The Scientist and the Humanist, celebrates his contributions to social psychological theory and its application to real-world problems. Dr. Aronson’s own recent books for general audiences include Mistakes Were Made (but not by ME), with Carol Tavris, and a memoir, Not by Chance Alone: My Life as a Social Psychologist.

Neil Lewis, Jr. earned his B.A. in economics and psychology at Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Michigan. He is currently Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences and associate professor at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine. He holds faculty appointments in the department of communication, division of general internal medicine, graduate field of psychological sciences and human development and school of public policy. He also co-directs the Cornell Action Research Collaborative and is associate director of the Cornell Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures. His research examines how people’s social contexts and identities influence (1) how they interpret and make meaning of the world around them, (2) their motivations to pursue their goals and success in goal pursuit efforts and (3) the implications of these processes for individual and collective outcomes in education, health and environmental sustainability. He is particularly interested in these processes as they relate to broader inequities in society, as well as their implications for the effectiveness of interventions and policies to improve equity in social outcomes. He has received the SAGE Young Scholar early career award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science and the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Elizabeth Page-Gould earned a B.S. in psychology and statistics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008, before completing a Mind/Brain/Behavior Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University. She is now the Canada Research Chair in Social Psychophysiology, a Professor of Psychology, and currently the chair of the Graduate Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. She researches how social interactions with friends and strangers shape experiences in diverse societies, with a focus on the role of stress in social interactions, friendship and individual thriving. Dr. Page-Gould’s research employs multiple methodological approaches, integrating across physiological, behavioral, and subjective (self-reported) data collected from multiple people at once to develop a rich picture of social interactions. Dr. Page-Gould’s research was recognized by the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize; a Fellowship in the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology; the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and being named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science. While predominantly teaching Introduction to Social Psychology, she received the Professor of the Year award and Scarborough Students Union Teaching Award at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

The late Sam Sommers earned his B.A. from Williams College and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Beginning in 2003, he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he served as Professor and Chair. His research examined issues related to racial equity and group diversity, with a particular interest in how these processes play out in the legal domain. He won multiple teaching awards at Tufts, including the Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Advising, the Gerald R. Gill Professor of the Year Award and the Lillian and Joseph Leibner Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advising. He was inducted into the Tufts Hall of Diversity for his efforts to promote an inclusive climate on campus for all students. He testified as an expert witness on issues related to racial bias, jury decision making and eyewitness memory in criminal trial proceedings in 8 states. He wrote 2 general audience books related to social psychology: Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World (2011) and This Is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-shirt Cannon (2016). He was also co-author of Invitation to Psychology (8th Edition) and Psychology (14th Edition), along with Carole Wade, Carol Tavris and Lisa Shin.

Tim Wilson did his undergraduate work at Williams College and Hampshire College and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Currently Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, he has published numerous articles in the areas of introspection, attitude change, self-knowledge and affective forecasting, as well as the books Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change and Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. He has received numerous honors, including elections to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, he received the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science, which honors recipients “for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology.” Wilson has taught the Introduction to Social Psychology course at the University of Virginia for more than 40 years. In 2001, he was awarded the University of Virginia All-University Outstanding Teaching Award, and in 2015 was awarded the University of Virginia’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Scholarship.

“We dedicate this book to Sam Sommers, our dear friend and co-author, who died in 2025 and whose life and work had transformative impacts on the field of social psychology and the broader world.”

—Elliot Aronson, Neil Lewis, Jr., Elizabeth Page-Gould and Timothy D. Wilson

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