TARGET ARTICLE: The Nonobvious Social Psychology of Happiness

Abstract

There are several classic findings in social psychol ogy that behavioral scientists recognize as having ex erted a profound influence on people's understanding of the world. The stars of our field, such as Milgram, Zimbardo, Darley, and Latane, have demonstrated the power of social situations to influence behavior, for ex ample in obedience, bystander intervention, confor mity, and altruism. Another classic set of findings of social psychology describes in-group biases, and how group membership profoundly influences people's perceptions of events. The They Saw a Game study by Hastorf and Cantril (1954)-which showed how Dartmouth and Princeton fans recalled two very differ ent football games, although they viewed the same game-is a wonderful example in this area. John Bargh and others have begun a research tradition on