Muzafer Sherif

Muzafer Sherif
BornJuly 29, 1906
DiedOctober 16, 1988(1988-10-16) (aged 82)
NationalityTurkish-American
Known forSocial psychology (group conformity, Robbers cave study)
SpouseCarolyn Wood (m. 1945)
Children3
AwardsGuggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1967)
Kurt Lewin Memorial Award (1967)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisA study of some social factors in perception (1935)
Academic work
DisciplinePsychology
Sub-disciplineSocial psychology
Institutions

Muzafer Sherif (born Muzafer Şerif Başoğlu; July 29, 1906 – October 16, 1988) was a Turkish-American social psychologist. He helped develop social judgment theory and realistic conflict theory.

Sherif was a founder of modern social psychology who developed several unique and powerful techniques for understanding social processes, particularly social norms and social conflict. Many of his original contributions to social psychology have been absorbed into the field so fully that his role in the development and discovery has disappeared. Other reformulations of social psychology have taken his contributions for granted, and re-presented his ideas as new. [citation needed]