Shared Beliefs in a Society: Social Psychological Analysis

Shared Beliefs in a Society is a much-needed contribution to societal psychology, a new emerging subfield of social psychology, which studies societies from a social psychological perspective. Daniel Bar-Tal presents his work of the last 15 years on shared beliefs in societies under one conceptual framework from which to identify beliefs held in common by entire societies and nations. Using examples form the history, politics, sociology, culture, and education from different societies, the author offers that social psychology can provide a unique perspective on society, but it can also benefit from integrating contributions from other social sciences into its own theorizing effort.

Bar-Tal (psychology, Tel Aviv U., Israel) describes two major concepts of the social psychological study of societies: shared belief on a societal level and societal ethos (loosely defined as being akin to the holistic concept of personality in an individual). After looking at the theoretical basis for the discussion, he explores shared belief in the realms of patriotism, national security, the delegitimization of marginal groups, and siege mentality. Most of the data upon which the analysis is based is drawn from opinion surveys in Israel and the United States. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Daniel Bar-Tal is Branco Weiss Professor of Research in Child Development and Education at the School of Education and past director of the Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University. Also he serves as a Coeditor in Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal, Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and Co-director of the European Summer Institute in Political Psychology.