Skip to main content
Free AccessEditorial

Old Tasks and New Urgency

A Look Back and a Look Ahead

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000429

Upon starting my editorial term, I outlined the challenge we faced in trying to balance the consequences of the replication debate with the growing pressure for the field to be impactful in terms of helping to answer societal questions (Epstude, 2017). The desire to create a more replicable social psychology led to visible changes in the type of research published. However, it seems like the shift in large part resulted in more online samples and more reliance on self-report measures (Sassenberg & Ditrich, 2019). A focus on behavioral measures and on a more diverse set of methods is, I think, needed to increase the reliability of social psychological findings.

In our journal, we made several changes that increased transparency, such as making it mandatory to publish materials, data, and analysis scripts. We also continued to publish replication papers (e.g., Chabris et al., 2019). In addition, we also aimed to publish papers that focus on contentious societal issues, such as the integration of refugees (e.g., Hellmann et al., 2020), the rise of fake news (Faragó et al., 2020), and the situation of minorities in society (e.g., Feddes & Jonas, 2020).

With the current issue, we are also launching a new type of article, namely tutorials. In the first such article, Smaldino (2020) outlines how to transform a theory into an actual model. In an upcoming paper, Iris van Rooij and Mark Blokpoel will present another look at the formalization of models. A third article by Nina Hansen, due to be published at the end of this year, will outline the challenges of doing intercultural research. It is our intention that these tutorials should be seen as guides to transforming a discipline that has often been criticized for its vague concepts and theorizing, as well as for its very homogenous samples. They aim to serve as an inspiration for scholars who want to adjust their own ways of conducting research and also to serve as guides for students in our field.

The issue of societal relevance gained more urgency in recent months due to a general concern about the psychological effects of the novel coronavirus. The question of whether psychology should give advice to the public based on its empirical insights received critical attention (IJzerman et al., 2020). It is a crucial task for science to produce knowledge in a way that can inform the general public on different kinds of issues. This is especially true for a field such as social psychology that highlights the importance of the situation in determining human behavior. When that situation changes fundamentally, the field needs to find a way to deal with it. Scientific journals should be open to publishing research that is relevant in situations of crisis and when society faces challenges. Social Psychology is an outlet that tried to be close to the developments in the field and will remain doing so in the future.

Social Psychology has largely been a collaborative effort in the last 4.5 years of my term as Editor in Chief. The ups and downs of the impact factor, changes in the number of submissions, and developments in the field were collectively observed and debated by a team of engaged and skilled Associate Editors. I would like to express my gratitude to the people who served as Associate Editors during these years: Anna Baumert, Marco Brambilla, Julia Becker, Adam Fetterman, Ilka Gleibs, Michael Häfner, Mandy Hütter, Hans IJzerman, Ulrich Kühnen, Toon Kuppens, Ruth Mayo, Kim Peters, Christian Unkelbach, Michaela Wänke, and Kumar Yogeeswaran. In addition, I thank Wim Meerholz for his conscientious work as Editorial Assistant. Antonia Laimina, Regina Pinks-Freybott, Juliane Munson, and Robert Dimbleby from Hogrefe Publishing delivered competent support and oversight in running the journal, for which I would also like to thank them.

Anja Achtziger will be the new Editor-in-Chief starting September 1, 2020. She and her editorial team aim to ensure that Social Psychology will remain an interesting outlet in the future. I have no doubt that she and they will succeed in doing so.

References

  • Chabris, C. F., Heck, P. R., Mandart, J., Benjamin, D. J., & Simons, D. J. (2019). No evidence that experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth. Social Psychology, 50, 127–132. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000361 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • Epstude, K. (2017). Towards a replicable and relevant social psychology [Editorial]. Social Psychology, 48(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000303 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • Faragó, L., Kende, A., & Krekó, P. (2020). We only believe in news that we doctored ourselves: The connection between partisanship and political fake news. Social Psychology, 51(2), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000391 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • Feddes, A. R., & Jonas, K. J. (2020). Associations between Dutch LGBT hate crime experience, well-being, trust in the police and future hate crime reporting. Social Psychology, 51(3), 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000409 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • Hellmann, J. H., Forthmann, B., Knausenberger, J., Hellmann, D. F., Rees, J. H., Gansel, E., Back, M. D., & Echterhoff, G. (2020). Support for refugee integration in West and East Germany: Results from two lost letter studies. Social Psychology, 51(2), 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000397 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • IJzerman, H., Lewis, N. A. Jr., Weinstein, N., DeBruine, L. M., Ritchie, S. J., Vazire, S., Forscher, P. S., Morey, R. D., Ivory, J. D., Anvari, F., & Przybylski, A. K. (2020, April 27). Is social and behavioural science evidence ready for application and dissemination?. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/whds4 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Sassenberg, K., & Ditrich, L. (2019). Research in social psychology changed between 2011 and 2016: Larger sample sizes, more self-report measures, and more online studies. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 107–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919838781 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Smaldino, P. (2020). How to translate a verbal theory into a formal model. Social Psychology, 51(4), 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000425 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

Kai Epstude, Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, E-mail