ABSTRACT
Because I have already thanked my former and present associates—teachers, fellow graduate students, colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students, yes, and wives, mentioning names of many of them at the 1999 meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology—I need only say here that my research has been a great adventure and it could not have been so without the help of all these people. Having thus made at least a downpayment on my debt, I would like here to move on to a few comments about the general field of study in which I have spent my time. Early on when I reluctantly agreed to write something for this book, I thought about doing a piece called “Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Social Psychology.” And as I thought of one problem after another to complain about, it occurred to me that I was taking on the role of a crotchety old has-been who has nothing more of interest to say. So, although I have a few things to say about problems in the field of social psychology, I aim primarily at leaving you with a sketch of a new theory about social influence and the general direction in which our understanding of human behavior could move.
