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WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO OUR MENTORS AND THEIR MENTORS,
in appreciation of the teaching of psychology through these relationships.
Roy F. BaumeisteR (1953– ) Brad J. Bushman (1960– )

Ph.D. 1978, Princeton University Ph.D. 1989, University of Missouri
edward e. Jones (1926–1993) Russell G. Geen (1932– )

Ph.D. 1953, Harvard University Ph.D. 1967, University of Wisconsin
Jerome s. BRuneR (1915– ) Leonard BeRkowitz (1926– )

Ph.D. 1941, Harvard University Ph.D. 1951, University of Michigan
Gordon aLLpoRt (1897–1967) Daniel katz (1903–1998)

Ph.D. 1922, Harvard University Ph.D. 1928, Syracuse University
herbert s. LanGFeLD (1879–1958) Floyd h. aLLpoRt (1879–1958)

Ph.D. 1909, University of Berlin Ph.D. 1919, Harvard University
Carl stumpF (1848–1936) hugo münsteRBeRG (1863–1916)

edwin B. hoLt (1873–1946)
Ph.D. 1868, University of Leipzig Ph.D. 1885, Leipzig University
Ph.D. 1901, Harvard University
M.D. 1887, Heidelberg University
Rudolf h. Lotze (1817–1881) wilhelm wunDt (1832–1920) william James (1840–1910)

M.D. 1838, University of Leipzig M.D. 1856, Harvard University M.D. 1869, Harvard University
Level One Head | v

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
about the authors
ROY F. BAUMEISTER holds the Eppes Eminent Professorship in Psychology at Florida State
University, where he is the head of the social psychology graduate program and teaches social
psychology to students at all levels. He has taught introductory social psychology to thousands
of undergraduate students. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1978, and his teaching and
research activities have included appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, Case
Western Reserve University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, the Max
Planck Institute in Munich (Germany), the VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands), King
Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral
Sciences at Stanford. Baumeister is an active researcher whose work has been funded by the
National Institutes of Health and by the Templeton Foundation. He has done research on the
self (including self-esteem and self-control), the need to belong, sexuality, aggression, and how
people find meaning in life. In 2005, the Institute for Scientific Information concluded from a sur-
vey of published bibliographies that he was among the most influential psychologists in the world
(the top 1%), and that status has been confirmed several times since then. According to Google
Scholar, his works have been cited more than 90,000 times in the scientific literature. In his (very
rare) spare time, he likes to ski and play jazz. In 2013 he received the William James Award, the
highest honor bestowed by the Association for Psychological Science in all of psychology, as rec-
ognition of his lifetime achievements and contributions to basic scientific research in psychology.
BRAD J. BUSHMAN is a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State

University, where he holds the Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication. He is also a profes-
sor of communication science at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the
summer. For more than 25 years he has conducted research on the causes, consequences,
and solutions to the problem of human aggression and violence. He co-chaired the National
Science Foundation youth violence advisory committee that was formed in the wake of the
shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. He also is a member of President Obama’s committee
on gun violence. He is ranked number 2 in citations among communication scholars. In 2014
he received the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Media Psychology and Technology,
American Psychological Association. His research has challenged several myths (e.g., violent
media have a trivial effect on aggression, venting anger reduces aggression, violent people
suffer from low self-esteem, violence and sex on TV sell products, warning labels reduce
audience size). One colleague calls him the “myth buster.” His research has been published
in the top scientific journals (e.g., Science, Nature, PNAS) and has been featured extensively in
the mass media (e.g., BBC, New York Times, NPR). He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife,
Tam Stafford, and their youngest son, Branden. Their two oldest children, Becca and Nathan,
are students at The Ohio State University. In his spare time, he likes to ride his bicycle
(especially in Amsterdam), train in Tang Soo Do at J. Kim martial arts (where he currently
is Dan 2), and listen to progressive rock (e.g., Patrick Moraz, Steve Hackett, Yes, Genesis,
Pink Floyd) and jazz (e.g., Michiel Borstlap, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins).
vii
Brief contents
Preface xix
c haP t e rS
1 The Mission & the Method 1
2 Culture and Nature 33
3 The Self 67
4 Choices and Actions: The Self in Control 113
5 Social Cognition 147
6 Emotion and Affect 185
7 Attitudes, Beliefs, and Consistency 229
8 Social Influence and Persuasion 257
9 Prosocial Behavior: Doing What’s Best for Others 291
10 Aggression and Antisocial Behavior 331
11 Interpersonal Attraction and Rejection 371
12 Close Relationships: Passion, Intimacy, and Sexuality 403
13 Prejudice and Intergroup Relations 447
14 Groups 491
glossary G1
endnotes e1
references R1
name index n1
Subject index s1
ix
contents
Food For thought 15
the mission
1
Does Chicken Soup Reduce Cold
Symptoms?
& the method 1 tradeoFFS

Research Ethics
18
a Brief history of Social Psychology 3 Experimental Philosophy 11 how much of Social Psychology
Making the World Better 11
What do Social Psychologists do? 6 is true? 26
Social Psychology Is Fun! 12
Self-Correcting Nature of Science 26
Social Psychology’s Place in the World 7 how do Social Psychologists answer Reliance on Student Samples 26
Social Psychology’s Place in the Social
their own Questions? 13 Cultural Relativity 27
Sciences 8
Accumulated Common Wisdom 13 chaPter Summary 28
Social Psychology’s Place Within
Psychology 8 Overview of the Scientific Method 14
Scientific Theories 15
Why People Study Social Psychology 10 Research Design 17
Curiosity About People 10
money matterS 43
2
Nature, Culture, and Money
culture and nature 33 Food For thought

Virtuous Vegetarians
44
the Social Side oF Sex 46

Sex and Culture
nature and Social Behavior
35 Are People the Same Everywhere? 48
Explaining the Psyche 35 important Features of human tradeoFFS 60
Nature Defined 36 Political Tradeoffs
Evolution, and Doing What’s
Social life 50
Natural 36
The Duplex Mind 50 What makeS uS human? 63
The Long Road to Social Putting the Cultural Animal in
Social Animals 38
Acceptance 54 Perspective
The Social Brain 39
Built to Relate 55
culture and human Social life 40 Nature Says Go, Culture Says Stop 56
Putting People First 61
Social Animal or Cultural Animal? 40 Selfish Impulse Versus Social
Culture Defined 41 Conscience 57 chaPter Summary 64
Nature and Culture Interacting 44 Tradeoffs: When You Can’t Have It
All 58
What Makes Cultural Animals? 47
xi
Food For thought 77
3
Eating Binges and Escaping the
the Self 67 Self
money matterS 82
Doing It for Money, Not Love
tradeoFFS 86
What is the Self? 69 Self and information Processing 88 Self-Handicapping
The Self’s Main Jobs 69 Anything That Touches the Self... 88
Who Makes the Self: The Individual or Can the Self-Concept Change? 89
Society? 70 Self-Esteem and Saying No to Sex
Self-Awareness 73 Self-esteem, Self-deception, and Positive
Why Do We Have Self-Awareness? 76 illusions 92 What makeS uS human? 108
Self-Esteem 92 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Where Self-knowledge comes From 78 Reality and Illusion 94
Perspective
Looking Outside: The Looking-Glass How People Fool Themselves 95
Self 78 Making an Impression 104
Benefits of Self-Esteem 96
Looking Inside: Introspection 79 Self-Presentation and Risky
Why Do We Care? 98
Looking at Others: Social Behavior 106
Comparison 80
Is High Self-Esteem Always Good? 99
Self-Perception 81
Pursuing Self-Esteem 100 chaPter Summary 109
The Fluctuating Image(s) of Self 82 Self-Presentation 101
Why People Seek Self-Knowledge 84 Who’s Looking? 102
money matterS 117
4
How Money Can Trick You Into
choices and actions 113 Making Bad Decisions

Gender, Sex, and Decisions
Food For thought 135

What you do, and What it means 115 Self-regulation and habits
131 Dieting as Self-Regulation
Making Choices 116 Control and Willpower 131
Why People Don’t Choose 119 Standards: Ideas That Guide Self-
tradeoFFS 140
Regulation 132 Now versus Tomorrow: Delay of
Freedom to Change 121
Gratification
Monitoring: Watching What You’re
Freedom of action 122 Doing 133 What makeS uS human? 143
More or Less Free 123 Willpower for Change 134
Putting the Cultural Animal in
Free Action Comes from Inside 123 Willpower and Decision Fatigue 136 Perspective
Having an Out Versus No Escape 124 Habits 137
goals, Plans, intentions 125 irrationality and Self-destruction 138

Setting and Pursuing Goals 125 Self-Defeating Acts: Being Your Own
Hierarchy of Goals 127 Worst Enemy 138
Multiple Goals and Goal Suicide 141
Shielding 128
chaPter Summary 144
Reaching Goals: What’s the Plan? 129
Common Mistakes in Planning 130
xii | Contents
money matterS 156
5
Does Money Make a Difference?
Social cognition 147 tradeoFFS 158

Conscious and Unconscious
Thought

What is Social cognition? 149 heuristics: mental Shortcuts 164 It’s the Thought That Counts (or
Thinking About People: A Special Case? 149 Representativeness Heuristic 164 Doesn’t Count!) the Calories
Why People Think, and Why They Don’t 150 Availability Heuristic 165 the Social Side oF Sex 170
Automatic and Deliberate Thinking 151 Simulation Heuristic 166
Counting Sex Partners
Thought Suppression and Ironic Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic 166
Processes 157
Flawed or clever thinking? 168 What makeS uS human? 179
attributions and explanations: Why did that Putting the Cultural Animal in
happen? 159 (So-called) errors and Biases 169 Perspective
Confirmation Bias 171
It’s Not My Fault: Explaining Success and
Failure 160 Illusory Correlations 171 Illusion of Control 175
You Know I’m Right: The Actor/Observer Base Rate Fallacy 172 Counterfactual Thinking 176
Bias 161 Gambler’s Fallacy and the Hot Hand 173
False Consensus Effect 174
are most People really Just kind
Challenging Attribution Theory 163
Explaining Actions: A Different False Uniqueness Effect 174 of Stupid? 178
Approach 163 Perseverance of Theories 174 Reducing Cognitive Errors 178
Statistical Regression 175 chaPter Summary 180
6
Can People be Wrong about
emotion and affect 185 Whether They Are Sexually

Aroused?
tradeoFFS 199
Affect Intensity: Emotional Roller
Coaster or Even Keel?
What is emotion? 187 Emotions Cause Behavior—Sort Of 208
Conscious Emotion versus Automatic Emotions Guide Thinking and Food For thought 209
Affect 187 Learning 210 Mood and Food
(Anticipated) Emotion Guides Decisions and
emotional arousal 188 Choices 211 money matterS 213
James–Lange Theory of Emotion 188 Emotions Help and Hurt Decision Emotions and Prices
Schachter–Singer Theory of Emotion 190 Making 212
Misattribution of Arousal 190 Positive Emotions Counteract Negative
What makeS uS human? 223
Emotions 214 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Some important emotions 193 Other Benefits of Positive Emotions 214 Perspective
Happiness 194
Anger 199 group differences in emotion 215 affect regulation
220
Guilt and Shame 202 Are Emotions Different Across How to Cheer Up 220
Cultures? 215
Disgust 204 Affect Regulation Goals 221
Are Women More Emotional Than
Gender Differences in Emotion Control
Why do We have emotions? 207 Men? 215
Strategies 222
Emotions Promote Belongingness 207
arousal, attention, and Performance 217 Is Affect Regulation Safe? 222
Emotions Communicate Social
Information 208 emotional intelligence (ei or eQ) 218 chaPter Summary 224
Contents | xiii
tradeoFFS 233
attitudes, Beliefs, and
7
What Is the Real Attitude?
money matterS 240

consistency 229 Would You Sell Your Soul for $1?

Would You Eat a Bug or a Worm?
What are attitudes and Why do People have Is the Drive for Consistency Rooted in
them? 232
Nature or Nurture? 243 the Social Side oF Sex 245
do attitudes really Predict A–B Inconsistency and Erotic
Attitudes versus Beliefs 232
Plasticity
Dual Attitudes 232 Behaviors? 244
Why People Have Attitudes 232 Attacking Attitudes 245 What makeS uS human? 253
Defending Attitudes 246 Putting the Cultural Animal in
how attitudes are Formed234
Perspective
Formation of Attitudes 234 Beliefs and Believing 247
Polarization 237 Believing versus Doubting 247
Belief Perseverance 248
consistency 239
Belief and Coping 249
Cognitive Dissonance and Attitude
Change 239 Religious Belief 251
Justifying Effort 239 Irrational Belief 252
Justifying Choices 241 chaPter Summary 254
Advances in Dissonance Theory 243
money matterS 265

Social influence and
8
Even a Penny Will Help

Persuasion 257 Convert Communicators and Health
Messages
tradeoFFS 274
two types of Social influence 260 Persuasion 270 Should Speakers Talk Fast or Slow?
Being Liked and Accepted: Normative Who: The Source 271
Influence 260 Says What: The Message 275
Being Correct: Informational Scared into Safe Sex?
To Whom: The Audience 278
Influence 261 Two Routes to Persuasion 280 What makeS uS human? 286
techniques of Social influence 263 resisting Social influence Putting the Cultural Animal in
Techniques Based on Commitment and Perspective
Consistency 263
techniques 282
Attitude Inoculation 283
Techniques Based on
Reciprocation 266 Forewarned Is Forearmed 284
Techniques Based on Scarcity 268 Stockpile Resources 284
Techniques Based on Capturing and chaPter Summary 287
Disrupting Attention 269
xiv | Contents
tradeoFFS 303
9
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Prosocial Behavior 291 money matterS

Money, Prosocial Behavior, and
305
Self-Sufficiency

is helping contagious? 293 Evolutionary Benefits 311 Restaurants, Rules, and the Bad
Two Motives for Helping: Altruism and Taste of Nonconformity
What is Prosocial Behavior? 294 Egoism 313
Born to Reciprocate 295 Is Altruism Possible? 314 the Social Side oF Sex 317
Born to Be Fair 296 Helping, Sex, and Friends
Who helps Whom? 316
morality 298 Helpful Personality 316 What makeS uS human? 327
Similarity 316 Putting the Cultural Animal in
cooperation, Forgiveness, obedience, Gender 316 Perspective
conformity, and trust 301 Beautiful Victims 317
Cooperation 301
Belief in a Just World 318
Forgiveness 304 how can We increase helping? 324
Emotion and Mood 318
Obedience 306 Getting Help in a Public Setting 324
Conformity 309 Bystander helping in emergencies 319 Provide Helpful Models 325
Trust 309 Five Steps to Helping 320 Teach Moral Inclusion 325
Too Busy to Help? 323 chaPter Summary 328
Why do People help others? 311

aggression & antisocial
10
Sexual Aggression

Behavior 331 Is There a Link Between Diet and
Violence?
tradeoFFS 362
defining aggression, Violence, and interpersonal causes of aggression 347 Creativity and Cheating
antisocial Behavior 334 Selfishness and Influence 347
money matterS 363
Is the World More or Less Violent Now Domestic Violence: Hurting Those We
Love 347 Money and Antisocial Behavior
Than in the Past? 335
is aggression innate or learned? 338 external causes of aggression 350 What makeS uS human? 366
Instinct Theories 338 Weapons Effect 350 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Mass Media 351 Perspective
Learning Theories 339
Nature and Nurture 340 Unpleasant Environments 352
Chemical Influences 353 other antisocial Behavior 360
inner causes of aggression 342
Lying 360
Frustration 342 Self and culture 356
Cheating 361
Being in a Bad Mood 342 Norms and Values 356
Stealing 363
Hostile Cognitive Biases 343 Self-Control 356
Littering 364
Age and Aggression 345 Wounded Pride 357
Gender Differences in Aggression and Culture of Honor 358 chaPter Summary 366
Violence 345
Contents | xv
tradeoFFS 374
interpersonal attraction
11
Testosterone—A Blessing and a
Curse
and rejection 371 money matterS 384

Is Manhood Measured in Dollars or
Inches?
the need to Belong 373 You Again: Mere Exposure 382 the Social Side oF Sex 386
Belongingness as a Basic Need 373 Looking Good 383 What Is Beauty?
Attraction in the 21st Century: Online
Two Ingredients to
Belongingness 376 Dating 385 Food For thought 391
Social Rejection and the Jar of
Not Belonging Is Bad for You 377 rejection 388 Cookies
Best Friends, Lovers, and Groups 377 Effects of Rejection: Inner
attraction: Who likes Whom? 378
Reactions 390 What makeS uS human? 399
Behavioral Effects of Rejection 392 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Similarity, Complementarity,
Loneliness 394 Perspective
Oppositeness 378
Social Rewards: You Make Me Feel What Leads to Social Rejection? 395
Good 380 Romantic Rejection and Unrequited
Tit for Tat: Reciprocity and Love 397
Liking 380 chaPter Summary 399
tradeoFFS 409
12
Sex In and Out of Marriage
close relationships 403 Food For thought

Eating in Front of a Cute Guy
432
money matterS 439

Mating, Money, and Men
What is love? 405 Investing in Relationships That
Passionate and Companionate
Last 419 What makeS uS human? 443
Love 406 Thinking Styles of Couples 421 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Love and Culture 406 Being Yourself: Is Honesty the Best Perspective
Policy? 423
Love Across Time 407
Sternberg’s Triangle 408 Sexuality 425
Theories of Sexuality 426
different types of relationships
412
Sex and Gender 428
Exchange Versus Communal 412
Homosexuality 431
Attachment 413
Extradyadic Sex 433
Loving People Who Love
Themselves 416 Jealousy and Possessiveness 436
Culture, Female Sexuality, and the
maintaining relationships 417 Double Standard 440
I Love You More Each Day(?) 418
chaPter Summary 444
xvi | Contents
money matterS 450
Prejudice and intergroup
13
Racial Discrimination in Sports:
Paying More to Win
relations 447 Food For thought

Prejudice Against the Obese
457

aBcs of intergroup relationships: Prejudice and Self-Esteem 468 Roots of Anti-Gay Prejudice
Prejudice, discrimination, and content of Prejudice and tradeoFFS 465
Stereotypes 449 Stereotypes 470 Competition Versus Cooperation
Are Stereotypes Always Wrong, Mostly
common Prejudices and targets 453 Wrong, or Mostly Right? 470 What makeS uS human? 487
Muslims 454
Are Stereotypes Always Negative? 471 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Atheists 455 Perspective
People Who Are Overweight 456 inner Processes 472
Homosexuals 457
overcoming Stereotypes, reducing Stigma and Self-Protection 482
Why Prejudice exists 461 Prejudice 475 Stereotype Threat 484
Us Versus Them: Groups in Conscious Override 476 Are Social Psychologists Biased? 486
Competition 462 Contact 479 chaPter Summary 488
Ignorance? The Contact Superordinate Goals 480
Hypothesis 466
Rationalizations for Oppression 467 impact of Prejudice on targets 480
Stereotypes as Heuristics 467 Self-Fulfilling Prophecies 481
Social Side oF Sex 495
14
Is a Marriage a Group?
groups 491 tradeoFFS

Diversity in Groups
496

Is Binge Eating Socially
What groups are and do 494 Brainstorming, and the Wisdom of Contagious?
Groups 506
groups, roles, and Selves 497 Why Do People Love Teams? 508 money matterS 522
Transactive Memory: Here, You Money, Power, and Laughter
group action 499 Remember This 509
Social Facilitation 500
Groupthink 509 What makeS uS human? 523
Social Loafing 501 Putting the Cultural Animal in
Foolish Committees 510
Punishing Cheaters and Free Perspective
Group Polarization and the “Risky
Riders 503
Shift” 511
Deindividuation and Mob Preserving Power 521
Violence 504 Power and leadership 513
Effects of Power on Followers 521
Shared Resources and the Commons Leadership 513
Legitimate Leadership 522
Dilemma 504 Toxic Leaders 514
What Is Power? 517 chaPter Summary 524
how groups think 506
Effects of Power on Leaders 517
Contents | xvii
Glossary G1
endnotes e1
References R1
name index n1
subject index s1
xviii | Contents
Preface
This textbook is simultaneously an expression of love and rebellion. The love is our feel-
ing toward our field. We followed different paths into social psychology, but over the years
we have developed an affectionate appreciation for it. We agreed to write this textbook
partly because we thought we could contribute to the field by covering what we love about
it. The process of writing strengthened those positive feelings, by helping us see the re-
markably diverse and creative work that our fellow psychologists have produced over the
past several decades. We are also both very active social psychological researchers and
teachers. We love doing social psychology research, and we love teaching students about
the field of social psychology.
The rebellion part begins with the title. Maybe social psychology has sold itself short
by clinging to the message “it’s all about situations!” We think it’s partly about situations,
but to us, social psychology is very much about people. We think students sign up for
social psychology courses because they want to learn about people. And we think social
psychologists actually have plenty to tell them about people. Hence the “human nature”
part of our title.
In other words, we are rebelling against the old dogma that social psychology’s truth
requires treating people as blank slates who just respond to situations. Instead, we see
people as highly complex, exquisitely designed, and variously inclined cultural animals
who respond to situations. Our textbook will tell students plenty about the power of situ-
ations, but it also seeks to tell them about the people in those situations.
To us, the most exciting aspect of this project has been the attempt to “put the per-
son back together,” in the phrase that got us started on the book. We believe that social
psychology can offer a remarkably new, coherent, and accurate vision of human nature.
In fact, this new vision of human nature was central to the story behind the book.
Both of us had been approached many times by various publishers about possibly
writing a social psychology textbook, and both of us had repeatedly brushed them
off as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Back then we thought that writing a text-
book sounded like a tedious, uncreative set of chores requiring reading and describing
every part of the field, regardless of how interesting. Both of us loathe anything that
is boring.
The turning point came when one of us spent a year at an interdisciplinary institute
and embraced the task of trying to package what social psychology has learned that could
be useful to other fields. Scholars in those fields mostly want to know about people and
why they act as they do. The response to this took the form of a book for general audiences
called The Cultural Animal (Baumeister, 2005), but the realization slowly dawned that this
new, more integrated understanding of the human being might provide a powerful basis
for a social psychology textbook.
We have used many different textbooks in our own social psychology courses. Many
of them are quite good. One dissatisfaction with them, however, and indeed one that we
have heard echoed by many other instructors and students, is that they end up being just
narrative lists of findings grouped by topic, rather like a handbook or encyclopedia. We
wanted more. We wanted an integrated, coherent vision. And now we had a basis in the
form of a new understanding of human nature that put together the results of thousands
Preface | xix
of social psychology studies. So this time when publishers asked us about writing a text-
book, we thought it over. And then we decided to do it.
Some might think that explaining human nature isn’t the job of social psychology
and should be left to the personality psychologists. In our view, personality’s claim to
that question is not naturally any stronger than social psychology’s. After all, person-
ality psychologists mainly study differences between people, and so understanding
the patterns common to all people isn’t any more likely to arise from those data than
from social psychology’s data. Au contraire, learning about how people in general will
respond to ordinary social dilemmas and events is at least as promising as study-
ing individual differences in terms of being able to point toward general patterns of
human nature.
Most general theories about human nature agonize over the competing explanations
based on evolution and cultural influence. Our synthesis is based on the question “What
sort of picture of the human being emerges from the results of thousands of social psy-
chology experiments?” The answer is novel: Nature “made” human beings for culture.
That is, we think human beings evolved specifically to belong to these complicated, in-
formation-using social systems that we call culture. It is interesting that the Merriam-
Webster word of the year for 2014 was “culture” (based on online searches).
Our book has many themes that are mentioned occasionally in the various chapters to
tie things together, and these are mostly derived from the central theme of human beings
as cultural animals. The theme of putting people first is a subtle way of conveying what is
biologically unique about humans: whereas most animals get what they need from their
physical environment, people get what they need from each other. This message was im-
plicit even in the classic Asch conformity experiments, in which people would disregard
the direct evidence of their physical senses in order to go along with what other people
(even a collection of strangers!) were saying.
Another central theme is that inner processes serve interpersonal functions. The
conventional wisdom in psychology, going back to its Freudian roots, has been more
or less that what happens to people is a result of what’s inside them. We think the
research in social psychology points toward the need to turn that on its head. What is
inside people is a result of what happens between them. Even in terms of what evolu-
tion has built into the human psyche, what is there inside the person is there to help
people thrive in their social and cultural groups. People are built to relate to other
people. Even the “self,” much discussed and invoked throughout social psychology, is
designed to cultivate social acceptance and other forms of success that are valued in
human cultures.
This is not a book about evolution, nor is it a book about cultural differences. It is a
book about people. Toward that end, we occasionally use insights that emerge from cul-
tural and evolutionary studies. But those remain mostly on the sidelines. We differ from
the evolutionists in that we focus more on how humans are different from other animals
rather than how they are similar to other animals. We differ from the cultural psycholo-
gists in that we focus more on what cultures have in common than on how they differ.
These are differences of emphasis, but they are fundamental and large ones.
The bottom line, for us, is a very positive view of human nature. Over the years, many
of the major theories about people have emphasized the negative. They have depicted
people as dominated by violent, destructive urges or by strivings for power, as souped-up
rats in societal Skinner boxes, as spineless beings at the mercy of giant social forces or
willy-nilly situational influences. We have been persuaded partly by the positive psychol-
ogy movement that psychology loses much of its value when it focuses overly on the
negative side. And, heck, we like people. So the integrated picture we offer is a generally
positive one, though we give the dark side of human nature its due.
Hence one important feature of this book is that every chapter ends with a brief
section entitled “What Makes Us Human? Putting the Cultural Animal in Perspec-
tive” that provides a quick review of what answers have emerged in that chapter. These
were easy to write because we really do see that human social life is remarkably and
importantly different from that of other animals. We do not shrink from discussing the
flaws and biases in humanity, and we acknowledge humankind’s vast capacity for petty
xx | Preface
malice and occasional capacity for great evil. But we think the final picture is mostly
favorable. These end-of-chapter sections offer a brief reflection on what is special about
human nature.
➠ concept Features
When we embarked on this book we listened long and hard to the complaints that fellow
teachers of social psychology had regarding their textbooks and the way the field was
taught. We also listened to the feedback from many students. Several features of our
textbook are directly influenced by this feedback. We have sought to offer a new, positive
alternative to existing textbooks.
The most common complaint, of course, was the lack of integration. Many instructors,
and even those who liked their particular textbook, still felt that textbooks merely hopped
from one finding and one phenomenon to another without any broad vision. Hence at
the end of the term, as one colleague put it, the take-home message was “Social psychol-
ogy is a large, interesting, and diverse field of study.” Our overarching goal of putting
the person back together was a direct response to this complaint and is, in our view, the
defining feature of our book. The themes that run through the book help to flesh this out.
These are developed in Chapter 2, “Culture and Nature,” which we regard as the theoreti-
cal foundation of the book. We recommend that instructors assign this chapter early in
the semester. That is why we put it early in our textbook. The subsequent chapters can be
taught in almost any order. Thus, the book is not a linear sequence in which each chapter
builds on the preceding one. We deliberately rejected that approach because we know
many instructors like to adapt the sequence of topics to their own schedules, goals, and
plans. Instead, the design of this book is like a wheel. Chapters 1 and 2 are the center, and
all the other chapters are spokes.
Our chapters contain four box feature inserts. Although many textbooks have box-
es, we are especially pleased with our set. In the first edition, they proved to be student
favorites. We began with a fairly long list of possible boxes and gradually, based on
input and feedback from students and instructors, trimmed these down to the list of
four that run through the chapters. For the second edition, we kept three of the four
boxes from the first edition. The fourth set, devoted to the broad theme that “Bad is
stronger than good,” was also well received, but reluctantly we deleted that set to make
room for an even more exciting set called “Money Matters.” Our readers liked this
set of boxes so much that we retained them for the third and fourth editions, but we
updated them, replaced some with new ones, and added some. Some of the modules
also contain boxes.
One box in every chapter has to do with eating. One

Food ForThought of us recalls a conversation years ago with Peter Her-
man, who observed, “Eating is the perfect social psy-
chology variable, because it is connected to almost
every social variable or process you can think of!” As we researched the various chapters
and thought about the findings, we came to see he was right, and so each chapter has a
box that covers some findings showing how the chapter’s topic influences or is influenced
by eating. We thought this would be especially appealing to today’s students, for whom
college often presents a novel set of challenges and opportunities for eating, dieting,
drinking, and related concerns. Eating is a microcosm of social processes. Following are
the Food for Thought topics included in the book:
● Does Chicken soup Reduce Cold symptoms? (Chapter 1)
● Virtuous Vegetarians (Chapter 2)
● eating Binges and escaping the self (Chapter 3)
● Dieting as self-Regulation (Chapter 4)
Preface | xxi
● it’s the thought that Counts (or Doesn’t Count!) the Calories (Chapter 5)
● mood and Food (Chapter 6)
● would You eat a Bug or a worm? (Chapter 7)
● Convert Communicators and health messages (Chapter 8)
● Restaurants, Rules, and the Bad taste of nonconformity (Chapter 9)
● is there a Link Between Diet and Violence? (Chapter 10)
● social Rejection and the Jar of Cookies (Chapter 11)
● eating in Front of a Cute Guy (Chapter 12)
● prejudice against the obese (Chapter 13)
● is Binge eating socially Contagious? (Chapter 14)
the Social Side of Sex

The same can be said for sex, and so most chapters
include a box applying social psychology to sexuality.
We suspect that few people leave college with their
sexual selves unchanged since arrival, and so stu-
dents’ natural and personal interest in sexuality can be useful for illuminating many
perspectives and patterns in social psychology. Our emphasis is, of course, not on the
mechanics or techniques of sex but rather on the social context and influences, which the
field of sexuality has often underappreciated. It is also helpful that human sexual behav-
ior is a vivid, dramatic example of something that shows powerful influences of both
nature and culture. Following are The Social Side of Sex topics included in the book:
● sex and Culture (Chapter 2)
● self-esteem and saying no to sex (Chapter 3)
● Gender, sex, and Decisions (Chapter 4)
● Counting sex partners (Chapter 5)
● Can people Be wrong about whether they are sexually aroused? (Chapter 6)
● a–B inconsistency and erotic plasticity (Chapter 7)
● scared into safe sex? (Chapter 8)
● helping, sex, and Friends (Chapter 9)
● sexual aggression (Chapter 10)
● what is Beauty? (Chapter 11)
● Roots of anti-gay prejudice (Chapter 13)
● is marriage a Group? (Chapter 14)
There is no The Social Side of Sex box in Chapter 12 because half of that chapter is about
sex.
A third box presents tradeoffs. In this box we attempt to stimulate critical

thinking. Many students come to social psychology wanting to find ways to
change the world and solve its problems. We applaud that idealism, but we
also think that many problems have their origin in the basic truth that solv solv-
trade ing one problem sometimes creates another. Many social psychology find-
Offs ings highlight tradeoffs in which each gain comes with a loss. Indeed, in
other writings, we apply that principle to assorted issues, not least including
gender differences: if men are better than women at something, they are
probably worse at something else, and the two are interlinked. We hope that
students will come away from these boxes with a heightened integrative
capacity to see both sides of many problems and behaviors. Following are the
Tradeoffs topics included in the book:
xxii | Preface
● Research ethics (Chapter 1)
● political tradeoffs (Chapter 2)
● self-handicapping (Chapter 3)
● now versus tomorrow: Delay of Gratification (Chapter 4)
● Conscious and unconscious thought (Chapter 5)
● affect intensity: emotional Roller Coaster or even keel? (Chapter 6)
● what is the Real attitude? (Chapter 7)
● should speakers talk Fast or slow? (Chapter 8)
● the prisoner’s Dilemma (Chapter 9)
● Creativity and Cheating (Chapter 10)
● testosterone—a Blessing and a Curse (Chapter 11)
● sex in and out of marriage (Chapter 12)
● Competition versus Cooperation (Chapter 13)
● Diversity in Groups (Chapter 14)
We replaced the “Bad is stronger than good” boxes

moneyMatters in the first edition of our book with a series of box-
es on money for the second, third, and fourth edi-
tions. This set was stimulated in part by listening
to Paul Rozin, a thoughtful contrarian who has criticized psychology for being out of
step with the interests of most people. He would hold up a copy of USA Today, “the
nation’s newspaper,” and note that its four sections (politics/crime, money, sports,
and life/style) are presumably what American citizens are most interested in
reading—yet these topics are scarcely even mentioned in the indexes of most psychol-
ogy textbooks.
Money is highly relevant to our theme of humans as cultural animals. Money is
often spent on getting things that nature makes us want: food, shelter, warmth, com-
fort, and even health and sex. Social events, such as war, can greatly influence the
value of money. Yet money is undeniably a cultural phenomenon. Thus, money shows
how humankind has found cultural means of satisfying natural inclinations. Social
psychologists (like intellectuals across the ages) have often been skeptical and critical
of money, and especially of the desire for money. Although the Bible says “the love
of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10), money is a fact of life and an almost
indispensable ingredient to the good life in modern society. We hope that this brand-
new series of boxes will stimulate students to see money through the prism of social
psychology’s diverse interests.
Following are the Money Matters topics included in the book:

● nature, Culture, and money (Chapter 2)
● Doing it for money, not Love (Chapter 3)
● how money Can trick You into making Bad Decisions (Chapter 4)
● Does money make a Difference? (Chapter 5)
● emotions and prices (Chapter 6)
● would You sell Your soul for $1? (Chapter 7)
● even a penny will help (Chapter 8)
● money, prosocial Behavior, and self-sufficiency (Chapter 9)
● money and antisocial Behavior (Chapter 10)
● is manhood measured in Dollars or inches? (Chapter 11)
Preface | xxiii
● mating, money, and men (Chapter 12)
● Racial Discrimination in sports: paying more to win (Chapter 13)
● money, power, and Laughter (Chapter 14)
Other themes run through the book without being formally reflected in specific boxes.
The “duplex mind,” divided into the automatic/deliberate and the controlled/conscious
sets of processes, has become a powerful theme in the field’s thinking about a great many
issues, and we want students to appreciate it. It is a profound insight into how the human
mind is organized. “The long road to social acceptance” reflects how much work humans
have to do to gain and keep their places in their social networks. “Nature says go, culture
says stop” was not on our original list of themes but kept coming up as we wrote, and so
we went back to revise our earlier chapters to recognize this common way that nature and
culture interact to shape human behavior.
➠ Pedagogical Features
Our book has also benefited from input and suggestions for what can help students mas-
ter the material. We have kept what has worked well in other textbooks, such as including
glossaries, tables, graphs, and illustrations. Each chapter begins with a set of “Learning
Objectives” and ends with a “Chapter Summary,” where we present lists of bullet points
summarizing key content in the chapter.
A more novel feature of our textbook is the inclusion of many self-quizzes. Each
major header in each chapter ends with a series of multiple-choice questions. These
were wildly popular with students in the first three editions. We can understand why
many books don’t include them—they were an immense amount of work to prepare,
and we wrote them ourselves rather than hiring them out to someone less familiar with
the content—but we think the effort was worth it. Every time students finish reading
a section of a chapter, they can get a quick check on how well they understood it by
answering those questions and verifying whether their answers are correct. Research
shows that taking quizzes is one of the best ways to learn new material,4 far more effec-
tive than other techniques such as highlighting and underlining textbooks, rereading,
and summarization.5
Another exciting feature of this book is the set of five application modules that can be
assigned according to instructor preference. It is possible to get the book printed with or
without these modules, or indeed with any combination of them. The five modules are:
(Module A) Applying Social Psychology to Consumer Behavior, (Module B) Applying
Social Psychology to Health, (Module C) Applying Social Psychology to the Workplace,
(Module D) Applying Social Psychology to Law, and (Module E) Applying Social Psychol-
ogy to the Environment. These modules enable an instructor to tailor a course that can
encompass some of the most important applied fields of study that have had long, close
relationships with social psychology.
For the third and the fourth editions we added six to eight learning objectives for each
chapter and module. A learning objective describes what students should know at the
end of the chapter that they didn’t know before they read it. Learning objectives should be
useful for both instructors and students. They also set our book apart from other social
psychology books that do not include learning objectives.
➠ more With less

When we embarked on this textbook, we made “doing more with less” one of our guiding
mottos. As we saw it, social psychology was approaching a turning point. The early text-
books often went into lively detail about many specific studies. That was possible because
back then there wasn’t a great deal of material to cover. Since then, the body of knowledge
in the field has expanded year by year, with new findings being continuously documented
xxiv | Preface
in established journals along with new journals popping up all the time. It is no longer
possible to cover all the influential studies in great detail.
Some textbooks have responded to information overload by packing more and more
findings into the same amount of space. This plainly cannot go on forever. Either text-
books have to get longer and longer, or they have to become more and more selective.
We chose the latter course. As things turned out, we were able to cover most of what
has become standard in textbooks, but we do not claim or pretend to be exhaustive.
Our model for this is introductory psychology. Once upon a time, perhaps, introduc-
tory textbooks could provide a comprehensive overview of psychology, but it has by
now become standard practice for them merely to select a few topics for each chapter
to illustrate rather than fully cover what that field has to offer. We think social psychol-
ogy is reaching the same point and that the way forward is to accept the impossibility
of covering it all.
To be sure, the review process did push us to be more thorough. One thing experts
are very good at is saying, “Well, you could also cover topic X,” and we heeded many such
comments from our expert reviewers. But our goal all along has been to offer students an
in-depth look at some information, with all its implications and connections highlighted,
rather than to make sure to cite every relevant study. We hope instructors will add their
personal favorites to the lectures, to augment what we have included. But to keep the
book to a manageable length and still do justice to our goals, we had to leave out many
important and worthy studies. Even some large topics ended up getting short shrift. Most
notably, we devote fairly little space to the social neuroscience work that has become an
important theme in the field. We don’t dispute its importance. We simply think it is not
what is best for introductory students. Our recommendation is that universities offer a
subsequent course that can focus on brain processes and their link to social behavior.
For the first course, we think students would prefer to learn about the more familiar and
more readily understood questions about how people think, feel, and act in recognizable
social situations.
➠ What’s new in the Fourth edition?

We were delighted with the positive reception of the first three editions of our textbook.
We are full of gratitude toward all who have used the book. We heard from many instruc-
tors and students who made suggestions for material to cover, noticed typos or other
things to fix, or simply wanted to express their liking for the book. Thanks to all.
In that happy spirit we set to work on the fourth edition. Our goals were to keep it
current, to retain its core vision and best features, and to make substantial, targeted im-
provements in a few areas where we felt there were promising opportunities or recent
developments in the field.
All chapters have come in for revision, especially updating their coverage with the ad-
dition of some recent research findings. Still, some chapters underwent more sweeping
changes than others. We added a Social Side of Sex box to Chapter 14 called Is Marriage a
Group? We also replaced the Tradeoffs box in Chapter 10 with a new one called Creativity
and Cheating. The old Tradeoffs box called Gun Ownership no longer seemed much like
a tradeoff, because it has become increasingly obvious, based on statistical and research
evidence, that most people are much safer if they do not own a gun than if they do own
a gun.
We added new opening vignettes to Chapter 5 on social cognition, Chapter 9 on pro-
social behavior, and Chapter 13 on prejudice. We begin Chapter 5 by talking about why
some people believe that vaccinations cause autism even though numerous reputable
organizations have denied a link between vaccinations and autism (e.g., Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics, Institute of Medicine,
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.K. National Health Service, Cochrane Library). We
begin Chapter 9 by discussing “pay it forward,” where a person does an unexpected good
deed for someone, and asks the recipient to repay it to others instead of to the original
benefactor. Chapter 9 also includes a new section on morality. We begin Chapter 13 by
Preface | xxv
discussing human zoos, in which Africans and indigenous peoples are put on display
like animals. All modules were also revised and updated.
For the fourth edition, like the third edition, we use the endnote reference style used
in the top scientific journals (e.g., Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy
of Science). This is not a cosmetic change. This makes the text much more readable to
students. It also changes the emphasis from who did the research to what the research
found. The references in the endnotes are formatted according to the guidelines of the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) so interested students
can become familiar with APA formatting.
We hope you will enjoy the fourth edition of our book. If you have suggestions for
improvement or discover errors in the text, please let us know by dropping us an e-mail
([email protected] or [email protected]). Again, we are deeply grateful for
the opportunity to share our love of social psychology with students and teachers around
the world.
➠ content overview
CHAPTER 1
The Mission & the Method
The opening chapter explains what social psychologists do and why students may want to
learn about it. It explains social psychology’s place among the different fields that study
human behavior. It offers a brief introduction to the methods social psychologists use to
tell the difference between right and wrong theories.
CHAPTER 2
Culture and Nature
Chapter 2 sets up the big picture. How do we explain people? Departing from the old
and tired battle of nature against nurture, this book follows a newly emerging under-
standing: nature and culture worked together, such that nature designed the human
being to be capable of culture. The stock notion of “the social animal” is shown to be
correct but far too limited, whereas the “cultural animal” captures what is special about
human beings.
This chapter then sets up many of the integrative themes that will run through the
book to help make sense of the many facts and findings that will be covered.
CHAPTER 3
The Self
The human self is a complex and marvelous participant in the social world. This chapter
provides a coherent understanding of the human self that is based on both classic and
recent research in social psychology.
CHAPTER 4
Choices and Actions: The Self in Control
The self is not just an idea but also a doer. This chapter covers key social psychology top-
ics of choice, decision-making, self-regulation, and the psychology of action. The remark-
able recent progress in this work lends extra excitement to this material.
CHAPTER 5
Social Cognition
Social cognition revolutionized social psychology in the 1980s. Now it has settled into
a core basis for understanding many spheres of social life. Cognition is vital to cultural
xxvi | Preface
animals, because cultures operate on the basis of information. This is a showcase for
many of the great achievements of social psychology.
CHAPTER 6
Emotion and Affect
Studying emotion has proven much harder than studying cognition, and so Chapter 6
cannot compare with Chapter 5 in being able to point to a solid body of accepted knowl-
edge. Despite that, much has been learned, and the “work-in-progress” flavor of the social
psychology of emotion—combined with the natural human interest in emotion that stu-
dents can readily share—should make this chapter an appealing read.
CHAPTER 7
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Consistency
The study of attitudes has a long and distinguished history in social psychology. This
chapter brings together the influential early, classic studies with the latest advances.
CHAPTER 8
Social Influence and Persuasion
Social influence and attempted persuasion are deeply woven into the fabric of human
social life, and indeed it is the rare social interaction that has absolutely none. As informa-
tion-using cultural animals, humans often find themselves wanting to influence others
or being the targets of influence. This chapter covers how people exert that influence, why
they do—and how sometimes people manage to resist influence.
CHAPTER 9
Prosocial Behavior: Doing What’s Best for Others
In this chapter, we look at what people do in order to make possible the success of
their cultural and social groups. Many textbooks have a chapter on helping. We cover
helping in this chapter, but the broad focus is on all prosocial behavior. The inte-
grative focus helps resolve some long-running debates, such as whether helping is
genuinely altruistic and prosocial or merely egoistic and selfish. We also break with
the Milgram tradition of depicting obedience and conformity as bad, because culture
and thus human social life would collapse without them. This chapter also discusses
morality.
CHAPTER 10
Aggression & Antisocial Behavior
Just as Chapter 9 replaced the traditional, narrow focus on helping with a broader focus
on prosocial behavior, this chapter replaces the traditional focus on aggression with a
broader treatment of antisocial behavior. Aggression is treated here as a holdover from
the social animal stage—which is why cultures mainly struggle to reduce and prevent
aggression, favoring nonviolent means of resolving conflicts. Other antisocial behaviors
covered include cheating, lying, stealing, and littering.
CHAPTER 11
Interpersonal Attraction and Rejection
This chapter combines two very different but complementary sets of findings. The study
of interpersonal attraction has a long history and, despite the occasional new finding, is a
fairly well-established body of knowledge. The study of interpersonal rejection is far more
recent but has become a thriving, fast-moving area. Together they constitute the two sides
of the coin of people trying to connect with each other.
Preface | xxvii
CHAPTER 12
Close Relationships: Passion, Intimacy, and Sexuality
In its first decades, social psychology mainly studied interactions among strangers—but
most social life involves ongoing relationships. The study of close, intimate relationships
blossomed in the 1980s from a small, underappreciated corner into a profound and ex-
citing enterprise that changed the field. This chapter covers this work, much of it quite
recent. It emphasizes romantic and sexual relationships, showcasing what social psychol-
ogy has contributed to understanding of these grand, perennial human dramas. Human
romance and sex are eternal problems that reveal our evolutionary background but also
highlight the many striking ways in which humans are unique.
CHAPTER 13
Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
Prejudice occurs all over the world, often contributing to violence and oppression and
other forms of misery. This chapter examines the many forms and faces of prejudice,
ranging from the standard topics of racism and sexism to the less remarked prejudices
against obese people, Arabs and Muslims, atheists, and homosexuals. Special emphasis
is given to the emerging and uplifting work on how people overcome prejudice.
CHAPTER 14
Groups
All over the world, human beings live in small groups. This chapter takes a fresh and excit-
ing look at the social psychology of groups. The first part addresses one often overlooked
but basic question, namely why are some groups more and others less than the sum of
their parts? Classic material on group processes is mixed with new and exciting research.
➠ mindtap for Baumeister and Bushman’s Social

Psychology and human nature
MindTap is a personalized teaching experience with relevant assignments that guide
students to analyze, apply, and improve thinking, allowing you to measure skills and
outcomes with ease.
• Personalized Teaching: Becomes yours with a learning path that is built with
key student objectives. Control what students see and when they see it. Use it as-is or
match to your syllabus exactly—hide, rearrange, add, and create your own content.
• Guide Students: A unique learning path of relevant readings, multimedia, and
activities that move students up the learning taxonomy from basic knowledge and
comprehension to analysis and application.
• Promote Better Outcomes: Empower instructors and motivate students with
analytics and reports that provide a snapshot of class progress, time in course, en-
gagement and completion rates.
In addition to the benefits of the platform, MindTap for Baumeister and Bushman’s
Social Psychology and Human Nature features:
• Videos, animations, and survey-type activities, all based on key social
psychology topics and concepts.
• Chapter-opening activities that include “choose-your-own-activity style exer-
cises in which students progress through by answering questions and to indicate
their next steps. At the end, their decision-based outcome is presented, along with
related social psych research.
xxviii | Preface
• Quizzing for every chapter, including multiple choice, true-false, and short
response reflection questions to encourage application and critical thinking
• Cerego Mastery Training lessons to reinforce and help student learning of
important topics
➠ Supplements
Instructor’s Resource Manual The Online Instructor’s Research Manual includes
the following tools for each chapter:
• Chapter outline. Detailed review of the chapter with key terms underlined and
defined.
• Lecture/discussion ideas. Helpful ways to address topics in text, cover topics
tangential to what is in text, or provide alternative examples to what are presented in
the text.
• Class activity/demonstration ideas. Ideas and prompts for in-class activities.
• Student projects/homework. Short- and longer-term assignments, as well as
substantial prompts for projects that students can do on their own as out-of-class
assignments or short-term projects.
• Video clip suggestions our Research in Action video collection, YouTube, and
other videoclip suggestions.
• Handouts. Each chapter includes helpful handouts correlated with suggested
activities and homework.
ISBN: 9781305873902
Cognero Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero is a flexible, online system

that allows you to author, edit, and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage
Learning solutions, create multiple test versions in an instant, and deliver tests from
your Learning Management System (LMS), your classroom, or wherever you want. ISBN:
9781305856974
PowerPoint The Online PowerPoint features lecture outlines and key images from
the text. ISBN: 9781305873919
acknowledgments
manusCRipt ReVieweRs
We thank our colleagues for their diligent and thoughtful fourth edition pre-revision
surveys, as well as to those who reviewed earlier editions of Social Psychology and Human
Nature. Their suggestions pointed the way to make this a better book.
FouRth eDition
Anila Putcha-Bhagavatula, Heidi Dempsey,
California State University, Fullerton Jacksonville State University
Kathleen Schiaffino, Stephanie Afful,
Fordham University Fontbonne University
Mary Shuttlesworth, Lindsey Rodriguez,
Mt. Aloysius College University of Houston
Preface | xxix
Corey Cook, Nao Hagiwara,
Skidmore College Virginia Commonwealth U
Ashlee Lien, Ken Cheung,
SUNY College at Old Westbury Brooklyn College
Julie Blaskewicz Boron, Carrie V. Smith,
Youngstown State University of Mississippi
Fionnuala Butler, Erin Ward Sparks,
Carthage College Purdue University
Melanie Covert, Alisa Aston,
Brenau University University of North Florida
Luis Vega,
California State University, Bakersfield
thiRD eDition
Keith Davis, Philip Mazzocco,
University of South Carolina, Columbia The Ohio State University at Mansfield
Michael Dudley, Eirini Papafratzeskakou,
Southern Illinois University Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Lisa Finkelstein, Randall Renstrom,
Northern Illinois University Loyola University, Chicago
Evan Kleiman,
George Mason University
seConD eDition
Gordon Bear, Kathleen McKinley,
Ramapo College of New Jersey Cabrini College
Khanh Bui, Mark Muraven,
Pepperdine University University at Albany
Nilanjana Dasgupta, Ernest Park,
University of Massachusetts—Amherst Cleveland State University
Kimberly Fairchild, Ludmila Praslova,
Manhattan College Vanguard University of Southern California
Jennifer Feenstra, Christopher Robinson,
Northwestern College University of Alabama, Birmingham
Joseph R. Ferrari, Heidi Wayment,
Vincent DePaul University Northern Arizona University
FiRst eDition
Nancy L. Ashton, Kurt Boniecki,
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey University of Central Arkansas
Melissa Atkins, Thomas Britt,
Marshall University Clemson University
Kevin Bennett, Jonathan Brown,
Pennsylvania State University–Beaver University of Washington
John Bickford, Jeff Bryson,
University of Massachusetts–Amherst San Diego State University
xxx | Preface
Shawn Burn, Darlene Hannah,
California Polytechnic State University Wheaton College
Jennifer L. Butler, Judith Harackiewicz,
Wittenberg University University of Wisconsin
Keith Campbell, Lora Harpster,
University of Georgia Salt Lake City Community College
Laurie Couch, Helen C. Harton,
Morehead State University University of Northern Iowa
Traci Y. Craig, Sandra Hoyt,
University of Idaho Ohio University
Janet Crawford, Jon Iuzzini,
Rutgers University University of Tennessee–Knoxville
Layton Curl, Norine Jalbert,
Metropolitan State College of Denver Western Connecticut State University
Deborah Davis, Robert Johnson,
University of Nevada–Reno Arkansas State University
John Davis, Deana Julka,
Texas State University–San Marcos University of Portland
Dorothee Dietrich, Patrice Karn,
Hamline University University of Ottawa
Nancy Dye, Benjamin R. Karney,
Humboldt State University University of Florida
Sarah Estow, Timothy Ketelaar,
Dartmouth College New Mexico State University
Jennifer Feenstra, Charles Kimble,
Northwestern College University of Dayton
Joe R. Ferrari, Linda Kline,
DePaul University California State University–Chico
Lisa Finkelstein, Elisha Klirs,
Northern Illinois University George Mason University
Phil Finney, C. Raymond Knee,
Southeast Missouri State University University of Houston
Wendi Gardner, Susan Kraus,
Northwestern University Fort Lewis College
Bryan Gibson Neil Kressel,
Central Michigan University William Patterson University
Tom Gilovich, Joachim Kreuger,
Cornell University Brown University
Traci Giuliano, Roger Kreuz,
Southwestern University University of Memphis
Wind Goodfriend, Douglas Krull,
Buena Vista University Northern Kentucky University
Elizabeth Gray, Barry Kuhle,
Northpark University Dickinson College
Jeffrey D. Green, Paul Kwon,
Soka University Washington State University
Hillary Haley, Benjamin Le,
Santa Monica College Haverford College
Preface | xxxi
Lisa Lockhart, Gretchen Sechrist,
University of the Incarnate Word State University of New York–Buffalo
Britton Mace, Paul Silvia,
Southern Utah University University of North Carolina–Greensboro
Stephanie Madon, Royce Singleton,
Iowa State University Holy Cross University
Mark Muraven, Alexander Soldat,
State University of New York–Albany Idaho State University
Matt Newman, Sam Sommers,
Bard College Tufts University
Nelse Ostlund, Weylin Sternglanz,
University of Nevada–Las Vegas NOVA Southeastern University
Stephen Phillips, Jeff Stone,
Broward Community College University of Arizona
Gregory Pool, Rowena Tan,
St. Mary’s University University of Northern Iowa
Jacqueline Pope-Tarrance, Stephanie Tobin,
Western Kentucky University University of Houston
Jack Powell, Tamara Towles-Schwen,
University of Hartford Buffalo State College
Jim Previte, David Trafimow,
Victor Valley College New Mexico State University
Mary Pritchard, David Ward,
Boise State University Arkansas Tech University
Joan Rollins, Dolores Ward,
Rhode Island College Spring Hill College
Tonya Rondinone, Keith Williams,
St. Joseph College The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Barry R. Schlenker, Kevin Woller,
University of Florida Rogers State University
Brandon Schmeichel, Jennifer Yanowitz,
Texas A&M University University of Minnesota
Sherry Schnake, Ann Zak,
Saint Mary of the Woods College College of Saint Rose
Brian W. Schrader,
Emporia State University
eDitoRiaL BoaRD
We are grateful to the members of the first Marc Kiviniemi,
edition editorial board for their guidance University of Nebraska–Lincoln
and suggestions. Daniel Molden,
Bruce Bartholow, Northwestern University
University of Missouri Richard Ryan,
Jennifer Crocker, University of Rochester
The Ohio State University
Wendi Gardner, Kennon M. Sheldon,
Northwestern University University of Missouri
Cheryl Kaiser, Jeff Sherman,
University of Washington University of California–Davis
xxxii | Preface
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Social Psychology and Human Nature,

Brief 4th Edition, (Ebook PDF)

Roy F. BaumeisteR (1953– ) Brad J. Bushman (1960– )

edward e. Jones (1926–1993) Russell G. Geen (1932– )

Jerome s. BRuneR (1915– ) Leonard BeRkowitz (1926– )

Gordon aLLpoRt (1897–1967) Daniel katz (1903–1998)

herbert s. LanGFeLD (1879–1958) Floyd h. aLLpoRt (1879–1958)

Carl stumpF (1848–1936) hugo münsteRBeRG (1863–1916)

Rudolf h. Lotze (1817–1881) wilhelm wunDt (1832–1920) william James (1840–1910)

Level One Head | v

BRAD J. BUSHMAN is a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State

& the method 1 tradeoFFS

culture and nature 33 Food For thought

the Social Side oF Sex 46

the Self 67 Self

money matterS 117

choices and actions 113 Making Bad Decisions

the Social Side oF Sex 119

Food For thought 135

goals, Plans, intentions 125 irrationality and Self-destruction 138

Social cognition 147 tradeoFFS 158

Food For thought 159

the Social Side oF Sex 191

emotion and affect 185 Whether They Are Sexually

money matterS 240

Food For thought 242

money matterS 265

Food For thought 272

Prosocial Behavior 291 money matterS

Food For thought 310

the Social Side oF Sex 348

Food For thought 355

and rejection 371 money matterS 384

close relationships 403 Food For thought

money matterS 439

relations 447 Food For thought

the Social Side oF Sex 460

Social Side oF Sex 495

groups 491 tradeoFFS

Food For thought 502

One box in every chapter has to do with eating. One

the Social Side of Sex

A third box presents tradeoffs. In this box we attempt to stimulate critical

We replaced the “Bad is stronger than good” boxes

Following are the Money Matters topics included in the book:

➠ more With less

➠ What’s new in the Fourth edition?

➠ mindtap for Baumeister and Bushman’s Social

Cognero Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero is a flexible, online system

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI