About the Book
Social Perception and Social Reality contests the received wisdom in the field of social psychology that suggests that social perception and judgment are generally flawed, biased, and powerfully self-fulfilling. Jussim reviews a wealth of real world, survey, and experimental data collected over the last century to show that in fact, social psychological research consistently demonstrates that biases and self-fulfilling prophecies are generally weak, fragile, and fleeting. Furthermore, research in the social sciences has shown stereotypes to be accurate. Jussim overturns the received wisdom concerning social perception in several ways. He critically reviews studies that are highly cited darlings of the bias conclusion and shows how these studies demonstrate far more accuracy than bias, or are not replicable in subsequent research. Studies of equal or higher quality, which have been replicated consistently, are shown to demonstrate high accuracy, low bias, or both. The book is peppered with discussions suggesting that theoretical and political blinders have led to an odd state of affairs in which the flawed or misinterpreted bias studies receive a great deal of attention, while stronger and more replicable accuracy studies receive relatively little attention. In addition, the author presents both personal and real world examples (such as stock market prices, sporting events, and political elections) that routinely undermine heavy-handed emphases on error and bias, but are generally indicative of high levels of rationality and accuracy. He fully embraces scientific data, even when that data yields unpopular conclusions or contests prevailing conventions or the received wisdom in psychology, in other social sciences, and in broader society.
About the Author :
Lee Jussim is Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Rutgers University. He has published extensively on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, self-fulfilling prophecies and expectancy-confirming biases, and accuracy in social perception. He fully embraces scientific data, even when that data yields unpopular or politically incorrect conclusions (many of which can be found in this book).
Review :
"Social psychologists delight in showing us our biases and how these lead us astray in perceiving individuals and groups. Lee Jussim shows that in fact our biases are small, and our social perceptions largely accurate. He does this in the voice of the guy next door, amazed that the kings of social psychology are wearing no clothes." -- Clark McCauley, author of Why Not Kill Them All?: The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder and Friction: How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us
"Are stereotypes often accurate? It's an empirical question, not a moral one, and Lee Jussim is one of the very few scientists who have the guts to treat it as such. This important book will change how you think about stereotypes. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to study prejudice, or reduce it." -- Jonathan Haidt, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia
"Lee Jussim is the pre-eminent neo-realist in social psychology today. In this book, he makes a compelling and impassioned case for the idea that ordinary people get many of their social perceptions and judgments right, in sharp contrast to the prevalent academic view that they do not. As much as Jussim's work is an apologia for the common man and woman, it is an indictment of the fault-finding research program that dominates the field and the textbooks." -- Joachim I. Krueger, Professor of Psychology, Brown University
"What a terrific book! For many decades, psychological research has lured observers into believing that biased reasoning is both rampant in everyday life and profoundly dangerous. Lee Jussim meticulously dissects that literature and issues a startling corrective to conventional wisdom by documenting many ways in which human psychology has been mischaracterized. The bottom line of his work is an illuminating portrait of human nature and a humbling portrayal of inferences so often based on psychological research findings." -- Jon A. Krosnick, Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Psychology, Stanford University
"This delightful book provides a lively tour through research on error, bias, and accuracy in social judgment. Along the way, it provides valuable lessons in research methodology and the sociology of social psychology, as it develops a carefully documented and nuanced argument that human judgment is more sensible than the research literature often makes it appear." -- David Funder, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside
"Lee Jussim poses fundamental and long ignored questions about the relative balance of data-driven versus theory-driven information processing in social judgment. Moreover, he is coming up with answers that just might require rewriting big sections of social psychology textbooks." -- Philip Tetlock, Leonore Annenberg University Professor, Department of Psychology, and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
"This is a dense book, presenting decades of social science data and conclusions and an occasional table for good academic measure. It's a serious book, a serious argument by a serious scholar, and anyone with an interest in the topic (especially those who study or teach the issues raised in the book) should have a copy on a nearby bookshelf. It is also written in a great voice -- a somewhat cranky, fist-raised voice trying to make the reader sees what the author sees, because it's important." -- PsychCENTRAL
"He does review many studies in detail, includes tables summarizing results of the research he covers, and makes a case for his choice of studies not being biased. The book is well
organized and clearly written. Jussim sets out a road map for the arguments he will make
and follows it. He has read the original sources very carefully. His is a book that scholars in
these areas likely will want to readmany to see how their own work is critiqued! Students also could learn a great deal about the importance of attending to the details of classic and current studies from reading this book.." -- Margaret S. Clark and Elizabeth Clark-Polner, PsycCRITIQUES
"This is a very important book. It is an extensive and painstaking refutation of a set of mistaken assumptions that have dominated social science research since the 1950s, and continue to bias the thinking of most professionals in the field. It is a book for specialists [that] systematically dismantles the illusions that helped give rise to today's reflexive suspicion of whites." --American Renaissance
