'Moghaddam here profitably uses the tools of experimental psychology to re-read Shakespeare's dramatic structures. Recasting Hamlet and Prospero as researchers running human field studies, and reading Macbeth and King Lear as failed behavioral thought experiments, Moghaddam employs science's early and recent experimental models to powerfully reimagine the organizing principles of Shakespeare's plays.' Elizabeth Hodgson, Professor of English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

'The play is indeed the thing to catch the conscience of the king, as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. And in this creative, eye-opening, and entertaining book, his plays are bound to capture the conscience of contemporary experimental psychologists and every other scientist who thinks of the humanities as a distant shore.' Richard A. Shweder, Harold Higgins Swift Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

'By exploring the historical roots of experimental psychology through his discussions of thought experiments in Shakespeare's plays, Moghaddam has demonstrated the importance of breaking out of disciplinary boundaries for deeper and better explanations of human behavior.' Philip G. Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Stanford University, California, and author of The Lucifer Effect