Social Psychology and Human Nature,
6th Edition

Brad J. Bushman, Roy F. Baumeister

ISBN-13: 9780357946305
Copyright 2025 | Published
400 pages | List Price: USD $237.95

You are a member of a social world on a planet that is home to over 8 billion people. This social world is filled with paradox, mystery, suspense and outright absurdity. Explore how social psychology can help you make sense of your own social world with this engaging and accessible book. Bushman/Baumeister's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN NATURE, 6th Edition, can help you understand one of the most interesting topics of all -- the sometimes bizarre and baffling, but always fascinating diversity of human behavior and how and why people act the way they do. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of people (including yourself!).

Purchase Enquiry INSTRUCTOR’S eREVIEW COPY

1. The Mission and the Method.
2. Culture and Nature.
3. The Self.
4. Choices and Actions: The Self in Action.
5. Social Cognition.
6. Emotion and Affect.
7. Attitudes, Beliefs, and Consistency.
8. Social Influence and Persuasion.
9. Prosocial Behavior: Doing What's Best for Others.
10. Aggression and Antisocial Behavior.
11. Interpersonal Attraction and Exclusion.
12. Close Relationships: Passion, Intimacy, and Sexuality.
13. Prejudice and Intergroup Relations.
14. Groups.

  • Brad J. Bushman

    Brad J. Bushman is a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University, where he holds the Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication. He is also a professor of communication science at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the summer.

  • Roy F. Baumeister

    Roy F. Baumeister holds the Eppes Eminent Professorship in Psychology at Florida State University, where he is the head of the social psychology graduate programme and teaches social psychology to students at all levels. He received his PhD from Princeton in 1978.

  • Thoroughly updated with the latest research and developments, this edition includes coverage of new topics, including impersonal cooperation, gunfighter’s dilemma, positive and negative emodiversity, emotions from cultures other than the USA, self-validation theory, a type of lying called bulls**tting, “Vitamin S” (for social contact), parasocial relationships, gender dysphoria and more.

  • Most social psychology textbooks focus on humans as blank slates who just respond to situations. This textbook has the goal of putting the person back in the situation. People are regarded as highly complex, exquisitely designed and variously inclined cultural animals who are influenced but not defined by situations. This textbook will tell students plenty about the power of situations, but it also seeks to tell them about the people in those situations.

  • Many social psychology textbooks offer a “laundry list” of topics, much like a handbook or encyclopedia. This textbook offers an integrated, coherent vision of human nature. There are many social animals (e.g., elephants, wolves, bees, ants), but humans are much more than social animals -- they are cultural animals. This cultural animal theme is integrated through all chapters.

  • Most social psychology textbooks focus on how animals are like people. This textbook focuses on how people are different than other animals.

  • This text includes popular self-quiz items at the end of each section. The items vary in difficulty level so that students of all ability levels can find questions that are helpful and appropriate for checking their progress and maximizing their study time.

  • This text includes four boxes in each chapter: (1) Food for Thought (e.g., “Social Rejection and the Jar of Cookies”), (2) The Social Side of Sex (e.g., “Scared into Safe Sex?”), (3) Tradeoffs, (e.g., Now Versus Tomorrow: Delay of Gratification) and (4) Money Matters (e.g., “How Money Can Trick You into Making Bad Decisions”).

Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

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