Acta Psychologica Social

Acta Psychologica Social is a peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing high-quality, theoretically significant research in social psychology and related areas of psychological science.

The journal provides a selective specialist venue for research that advances understanding of how individuals think, feel, behave, relate, communicate, identify, cooperate, compete, and make decisions within social contexts.

The journal prioritizes work that is theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous, transparently reported, and makes a substantial contribution to social psychological knowledge. Submissions should demonstrate clear relevance to social psychological theory, mechanisms, evidence, or methods.

The journal welcomes research examining social cognition, interpersonal processes, group dynamics, identity, culture, norms, influence, morality, inequality, cooperation, conflict, and social behaviour in offline, online, institutional, and societal contexts.
The journal welcomes submissions in areas including:

• Social psychology

• Social cognition and social perception

• Attitudes, beliefs, values, and ideology

• Identity, self, and social identity

• Interpersonal relationships and communication

• Groups, teams, communities, and collective behaviour

• Social influence, persuasion, conformity, and norms

• Prejudice, discrimination, stigma, and inequality

• Intergroup relations and conflict

• Prosocial behaviour, cooperation, trust, and morality

• Emotion, motivation, and behaviour in social contexts

• Culture, context, and social behaviour

• Online social interaction, digital communities, and social media

• Political, environmental, organizational, and public-interest applications of social psychology

Article Types and Research Contributions

The journal seeks:

• Empirical studies with strong theoretical rationale, rigorous methodology, appropriate design, and adequate statistical power

• Experimental, longitudinal, field-based, survey, qualitative, mixed-methods, cross-cultural, and multi-study social psychological research

• Research that advances, challenges, or meaningfully refines social psychological theory or evidence

• Studies identifying psychological mechanisms underlying social behaviour, social cognition, identity, norms, influence, conflict, cooperation, or group processes

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that provide critical, integrative, and field-shaping insight

• Registered reports with strong theoretical rationale and robust design

• Replication studies where the target finding is theoretically important or methodologically consequential

• Scale development, adaptation, or validation studies only where they provide substantial theoretical, social psychological, or measurement advancement

• Methodological papers that make a substantive contribution to social psychological research practice

The journal particularly values multi-study designs, field experiments, cross-cultural research, longitudinal approaches, transparent measurement, preregistered hypotheses, and work that connects robust empirical evidence to important social psychological questions.

Transfer and Scope Guidance

Manuscripts that are strong but broader in psychological scope, interdisciplinary in emphasis, or not primarily focused on social psychological theory may be more appropriate for Acta Psychologica.
Manuscripts with a narrower contribution, routine scale validation, primarily descriptive survey findings, bibliometric analyses, publication-trend studies, narrative reviews, or limited theoretical advancement may be more appropriate for Acta Psychologica Reports.