Aim
The goal of this Special Section is to gather up-to-date research that explores when, how, and why people engage in radical vs. normative behaviors for their groups and/or important values. We plan to include research illuminating the psychological mechanisms that underlie political activism, pro-group sacrifice, and collective action on behalf of various social and political causes. It is a topic that is highly relevant to the socio-political dynamics of the contemporary world, which is not only an important aspect of social and political psychology but also has important implications for practitioners and policy-makers.
Theme of the section
Political polarization, the rise of radical groups, and massive pro- and anti-governmental demonstrations are common issues facing many societies around the world nowadays. This Special Section welcomes submissions utilizing laboratory experiments and survey studies, as well as applied research and theoretical papers, which may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:
• What are the factors that drive radical vs. normative actions for one’s cause?
• Are there different processes leading to solidarity-based actions vs. actions undertaken on behalf of the group’s interest?
• What are the short-term and long-term consequences of engaging in collective action?
• What are the important cultural dimensions that are related to willingness to act collectively in normative and non-normative ways?
• What is the role of social media and online communication in mobilizing support for collective causes?
Types of the articles for the Special Section
Social Psychological Bulletin is an open access quarterly issued by the Polish Association of Social Psychology that focuses primarily on basic and applied social psychological research (http://spbulletin.com/). For the Special Section, we invite empirical papers (based on either correlational, experimental or field studies). Review articles are also welcome. We especially encourage authors to submit Short Research Reports (up to 4000 words). See instructions for Authors here: spbulletin.com/instructions-for-authors
To submit a manuscript
A two-round process of review will take place. Please submit abstracts (up to 500 words) by Friday, 15th December 2017 to Katarzyna Jaśko (kasia.jot@gmail.com) or Tomasz Besta (t.besta@ug.edu.pl). Submitted abstracts are going to be reviewed, and selected authors will be invited to submit full papers by April 15th, 2018 for peer review.