ABSTRACT
The present chapter focuses on an equally classic issue, yet one that social psychology largely has left untouched in recent research: How could authorities and governments effectively manage or regulate social behavior in society? In addressing this basic question, one might adopt two broad approaches: the Vision Approach and the Application Approach. The Vision Approach is derived from the notion that political leaders, like social philosophers and other
scientists, have implicit or explicit views about the nature of human nature that might guide their public policy and communication. Most of our readers probably know how Machiavelli thought about human nature – as basically selfinterested and deceitful – and about how governments and authorities could infl uence people – through the use of power and manipulation and doing so by any means that has been proven effective. In contrast, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt shared a deeply felt belief in “fellow feeling,” the broad notion that people have a need for affi liation and to be part of a social group.
