Michael Billig

Michael Billig is Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. Working in contemporary social psychology, During his Undergraduate study at the University of Bristol, Billing was particularly fascinated by one of his lecturers, Henry Tajfel, a renowned Social Psychologist. On the completion of his undergraduate degree Tajfel offered Billig a postgraduate research position launching Billing's career as Social Psychologist, in the area of intergroup Relations. As an experimental psychologist and helped design the so-called minimal group experiments which were foundational to the social identity approach. He moved away from experimental work to considering issues of power, political extremism and ideology in a series of important books. His Social Psychology and Intergroup Relations offered a trenchant critique of orthodox approaches to prejudice in psychology. Fascists helped reveal the classic fascist and anti-semitic ideology underlying the UK's National Front at a time when it was bidding for political legitimacy and electoral success. In the 1980s his focus shifted to everyday thinking and the relationship between ideology and common sense.