The unknown Muzafer Sherif

Abstract

Like many of the 'greats' of social psychology, Muzafer Sherif is frequently cited in the textbooks for his most famous research - on the autokinetic effect, and the Boys' Camp Studies. At the same time, his wider intellectual and political perspective, and his vision of the discipline as a whole, has generally been ignored Recently, however social scientists from across the world have started to pay attention to Sherif's critical contribution to social psychology. Books have been written, symposia organised. So, what was Sherif's wider contribution? And what was the context from which it arose?