Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

About Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

Overview: What Is Advances in Experimental Social Psychology?

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology is an annual serial published by Elsevier under its Academic Press imprint. It is one of the most prestigious and most-cited serials in social psychology — the "premier outlet for reviews of mature, high-impact research programs in social psychology," in the publisher's description. It is not a journal in the usual sense: it is an annual edited serial (often described as a book series), publishing one volume per year, each volume containing a small set of long, authoritative chapters. As a serial rather than a journal, it has no Journal Impact Factor and no article processing charges; contributions are invited chapters, not submitted manuscripts.

The serial's bibliographic identifiers are: print ISSN 0065-2601, online ISSN 1557-8410, and ISSN-L 0065-2601 (per the ISSN Portal). It is published in the United States and is available both in hardback print and electronically through ScienceDirect, where full text is available from Volume 32 onward. The serial is part of Elsevier's Social Sciences book-series package on ScienceDirect, giving institutional subscribers simultaneous multi-user online access.

Each volume contains contributions "of major empirical and theoretical interest" that "represent the best and the brightest in new research, theory, and practice in social psychology." The characteristic chapter is a defining statement of an established research program: a leading scholar or research group reviews and integrates thematically related findings from their own program, placing them in the context of the wider literature. Volume 62 (2020), for example, included chapters on racial bias in weapon identification and decisions to shoot, the evolution of pride and social hierarchy, valence asymmetries in information processing, goal congruity theory, and an affordance-management approach to social stereotypes. Volume 69 (2024) covered misinformation and inoculation, coherence of emotional response systems, environmental influences on behavior, human creativity, and social perception.

The serial's reputation is exceptional. Reviewers in Contemporary Psychology called it "an impressive and representative presentation of what the field has accomplished," noting that its chapters "discuss individual substantive areas within the field at a middle level of abstraction and detail" — more focused than handbook chapters, less cursory than annual-review chapters — and that they "often summarize the author's own research program and review past research through the filter of the author's theoretical perspective." Contemporary Sociology observed that "these volumes have become a standard reference," presenting "a well-balanced picture of work in experimental social psychology."

Aims and Scope

The serial publishes substantial review and integration chapters on experimental social psychology. Its scope covers the full breadth of the field:

• Social cognition — person perception, attribution, stereotyping and prejudice, attitudes and persuasion;
• Self and identity — self-regulation, self-awareness, identity processes;
• Motivation and emotion — regulatory focus, pride and social hierarchy, emotional coherence;
• Intergroup relations — prejudice, stereotyping, intergroup conflict, racial bias;
• Social influence — conformity, persuasion, social consensus;
• Prosocial and antisocial behavior — aggression, helping, cooperation;
• Applied extensions — misinformation, environmental behavior, creativity, health.

The defining feature is maturity: the serial seeks reviews of research programs that have produced a substantial body of findings, not early reports of new lines of work. Chapters are typically written by the scholars who built the program, giving readers an authoritative, first-person account of what was found, what it means, and where the program goes next.

The serial does not publish unsolicited empirical reports, brief reports, or replication studies in the journal sense. It is an invited venue, and its annual volume contains only a handful of chapters — typically five to eight — each of which is a major statement.

Publication Details

History of the Serial

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology is one of the oldest continuously published serials in psychology. Its early volumes were edited by Leonard Berkowitz of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, one of the founders of modern experimental social psychology (known for his work on aggression). Volume 12 appeared in 1979 and Volume 15 in 1982 under Berkowitz's editorship, published by Academic Press — already well established as the field's flagship review serial by the early 1980s, when reviewers were calling its first quarter-century "an impressive and representative presentation of what the field has accomplished."

The serial's editorial lineage runs through the field's leading figures. After Berkowitz, editorship passed to scholars including Mark P. Zanna, who edited many volumes through the 1990s and 2000s (Volume 24 in 1991, Volume 30 in 1998, Volume 44 in the early 2010s), and more recently Bertram Gawronski, who edited Volume 62 (2020) and Volume 69 (2024). Each editor has shaped the serial's coverage while preserving its core identity: long, authoritative, program-defining chapters.

The move to ScienceDirect transformed the serial's accessibility. With full text available electronically from Volume 32 onward as part of Elsevier's Social Sciences package, the serial's chapters became instantly discoverable and citable worldwide, with digital delivery giving institutional users "reliable, 24-hour access to the latest peer-reviewed content." The print hardback volumes continue for libraries and collectors — Volume 69 (2024), for instance, appeared as a 324-page hardback.

Across six decades, the serial's chapters have tracked — and often defined — the field's agenda: from equity theory and objective self-awareness in the 1970s, through social cognition's rise in the 1980s, to regulatory focus, intergroup processes, and the social psychology of misinformation in recent volumes. A citation to "Advances in Experimental Social Psychology" in a reference list signals that the cited work is a landmark statement, not a routine finding.

Editorial Information

The serial has been guided by a succession of distinguished series editors:

• Leonard Berkowitz (1926–2016) — University of Wisconsin–Madison; founding-era editor (volumes in the 1970s–1980s); a founder of experimental social psychology and a leading aggression researcher;
• Mark P. Zanna — editor of many volumes from the 1990s through the 2010s (including Volumes 24, 30, and 44); known for work on attitudes and persuasion;
• Bertram Gawronski — recent series editor (including Volumes 62 and 69); known for work on attitudes, social cognition, and moral psychology.

Chapters are invited by the series editor rather than submitted through an open portal. The editor identifies mature, high-impact research programs and commissions their leaders to write defining reviews. Chapters undergo peer review arranged by the editor and publisher.

Indexing, Abstracting, and Availability

The serial is indexed in the major bibliographic databases under its ISSNs (0065-2601 print; 1557-8410 online). Its ISSN Portal record (ISSN 1557-8410) is maintained by the United States ISSN Center. Chapters are discoverable through ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and library discovery systems, and volumes are cataloged in library systems worldwide (Dewey classification around 302, social interaction).

Because it is a serial rather than a journal, it is not covered by Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports and has no Journal Impact Factor. Its influence is measured instead by the extraordinary citation rates of its chapters — it is routinely described as one of the most-cited serials in social psychology — and by its role as a standard reference in the field.

Access and Pricing

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology is not open access. Electronic access is through institutional subscription to Elsevier's ScienceDirect Social Sciences book-series package, which provides simultaneous multi-user access. Print hardback volumes are sold through booksellers (recent volumes list in the standard Academic Press hardback price range). There are no author-facing fees: chapters are invited and published without APCs.

For librarians: The serial is a core holding for any psychology collection. Electronic access via the ScienceDirect book-series package covers Volume 32 onward; earlier volumes are available in print backfiles. Use ISSN 0065-2601 (print) / 1557-8410 (online) for serials control.

Who Should Read This Serial

• Social psychology researchers — the serial is the field's flagship review venue;
• Personality psychologists and researchers in adjacent areas (political psychology, organizational behavior, health psychology);
• Graduate students — the chapters are the single best way to master a research area quickly, and they are standard assigned readings in doctoral proseminars;
• Instructors seeking authoritative, self-contained overviews for advanced courses;
• Researchers in neighboring fields (sociology, communication, behavioral economics) who need a reliable entry point into social-psychological literatures;
• Librarians building psychology collections.

How to Use the Serial in Research

A chapter in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology is best read as a field guide written by the field's builder. Start with the chapter's framing of the research program — what question motivated it, what the key manipulations and measures were — then follow the integration: how the author connects findings across studies and what theoretical account emerges. The reference list of a single chapter often constitutes a complete bibliography of the program, making it an efficient starting point for a literature review or dissertation.

Because chapters are invited statements rather than neutral surveys, read them with an awareness of perspective: the author is presenting their program "through the filter of their theoretical perspective," as one reviewer put it. Pairing a chapter with critical responses or competing-program reviews gives the fullest picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Advances in Experimental Social Psychology a journal?

No. It is an annual edited serial (book series) published by Elsevier/Academic Press — one volume per year of invited, long-form chapters, not a stream of submitted journal articles.

Does it have an Impact Factor?

No. As a serial it is not covered by the Journal Citation Reports. It is nevertheless one of the most-cited serials in social psychology; its influence is measured by chapter citation rates, not a journal metric.

Who publishes it?

Elsevier, under the Academic Press imprint, in the United States.

What are the ISSNs?

Print ISSN 0065-2601, online ISSN 1557-8410, ISSN-L 0065-2601.

Who edits it?

Past series editors include Leonard Berkowitz and Mark P. Zanna; recent volumes have been edited by Bertram Gawronski.

Is it open access? Are there author fees?

No — subscription access via ScienceDirect (full text from Volume 32). Chapters are invited and authors pay no fees.

How can I contribute a chapter?

Chapters are invited by the series editor. There is no open submission portal; the editor commissions defining reviews from leaders of mature, high-impact research programs.

How often is it published?

Annually — one volume per year. Volume 69 appeared in 2024.

Where is it indexed?

In major bibliographic databases under its ISSNs, on ScienceDirect, in Google Scholar, and in library catalogs worldwide.

Landmark Chapters and Volumes

The serial's backlist is a who's-who of social psychology. Early volumes carried now-classic statements: J. Stacy Adams and Leonard Berkowitz on equity theory (Volume 9, 1976), and Robert Wicklund on objective self-awareness (Volume 8, 1975) — chapters that defined research agendas for decades. These are the kinds of contributions the serial exists for: not the first report of an effect, but the mature statement that tells the field what a program of research has established.

Recent volumes show the same pattern at the contemporary frontier. Volume 62 (2020), edited by Bertram Gawronski, included B. Keith Payne and Joshua Correll on racial bias in weapon identification and decisions to shoot — a program with direct implications for policing and public policy; Jessica Tracy and colleagues on the evolution of pride and social hierarchy; Christian Unkelbach and colleagues on negativity bias, positivity bias, and valence asymmetries in information processing; Amanda Diekman and colleagues on goal congruity theory; and Steven Neuberg and colleagues on an affordance-management approach to social stereotypes. Volume 69 (2024) took up misinformation and inoculation — among the most socially urgent topics in contemporary psychology — alongside the coherence of emotional response systems, environmental influences on behavior, human creativity, and social perception.

What makes these chapters landmarks is not just their topics but their function: each integrates years of programmatic research into a single citable statement. When a textbook or handbook needs one citation for "the literature on regulatory focus" or "the weapon-identification literature," the Advances chapter is frequently that citation. This is why the serial's chapters accumulate citations at rates far above typical journal articles and why the serial is described as one of the most-cited in the field.

The Serial in the Publishing Ecosystem

Social psychology has three major review genres: the journal review article, the handbook chapter, and the Advances chapter. Each serves a different purpose. Journal review articles (in outlets like Psychological Bulletin or Personality and Social Psychology Review) are peer-reviewed surveys, often meta-analytic, written for relatively fast publication. Handbook chapters (in the Handbook of Social Psychology, for instance) are encyclopedic, multi-author, and updated roughly once a decade. Advances chapters sit between: more focused than handbook chapters, less cursory than annual-review chapters, and — distinctively — usually written by the architect of the research program being reviewed, summarizing their own program "through the filter of their theoretical perspective."

This positioning gives the serial a unique authority. A handbook tells you what the field knows; an Advances chapter tells you what a leading program has established and where its leader thinks the field should go. For a graduate student mapping a dissertation area, reading the relevant Advances chapters is the fastest route to understanding both the findings and the theoretical stakes.

The serial also differs from journals in its selectivity mechanism. Journals select by peer review of unsolicited submissions; the serial selects by editorial invitation of proven programs. Both mechanisms have biases — invitation favors established scholars — but the serial's track record shows the mechanism works: its chapters have an outsized presence in the field's citation networks and curricula.

Reading List: Where to Start

Newcomers to the serial should start with a recent volume's table of contents on ScienceDirect and pick the chapter closest to their interests — the chapters are self-contained and require no prior volume knowledge. Instructors building a proseminar can assign one chapter per week across a semester, pairing each with one or two of the primary-source articles it integrates. Researchers beginning a literature review should locate the Advances chapter on their topic first: its reference list is usually the most efficient bibliography available, and its framing will orient the rest of the review.

More Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a chapter?

As a book chapter in an edited serial: Author(s). (Year). Chapter title. In B. Gawronski (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. XX, pp. xx–xx). Academic Press. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx. ScienceDirect provides citation export in multiple formats.

Can I access it without a subscription?

Full text from Volume 32 onward is on ScienceDirect, which requires institutional subscription or pay-per-chapter purchase. Many chapters are also summarized or excerpted in legitimate previews; print volumes are widely held in university libraries.

Is there an open submission process?

No. Chapters are invited by the series editor. Unsolicited manuscripts are not considered through a journal-style submission system.

How long are the chapters?

Chapters are long-form — typically the equivalent of a substantial journal article or more, often 40–80 print pages — allowing full development of theory, method, and evidence.

A Note on the Serial's Identifiers

Catalog users sometimes stumble over the serial's two ISSNs. Use 0065-2601 for the print hardback volumes and 1557-8410 for the ScienceDirect online version; the ISSN-L 0065-2601 links the two. Older citations may abbreviate the title as Adv. Exp. Soc. Psychol. When searching library catalogs, the uniform title "Advances in experimental social psychology" with the print ISSN retrieves the complete run, while ScienceDirect organizes content by volume under the book-series page. Getting the identifier right matters because several psychology serials have similar names, and the ISSN is the one unambiguous key.