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Open research questions in Social and Intergroup Psychology

780 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 8,556 Social and Intergroup Psychology papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • further examination of the relationship between cognitive style and party cue susceptibility, - investigation of the generalizability of the findings to other populations and contexts, - exploration of the underlying psychological mechanisms driving the observed effects

    American liberals and conservatives have different cognitive styles, but (mostly) respond the same to party cues · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the literature regarding the psychological processes underlying party cue susceptibility. Prior research has focused on the existence of psychological differences between liberals and conservatives, but not on how these differences manifest in psychological processes. The study aims to address this gap by examining how liberals and conservatives respond to party cues.

    American liberals and conservatives have different cognitive styles, but (mostly) respond the same to party cues · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of dedicated instruments for measuring self-stigma among justice-involved adolescents. The limitations of existing self-report measures, which are susceptible to social desirability bias. The need for a framework that can capture the unique challenges and experiences of adolescents in conflict with the law.

    Development of self-stigma scale for adolescents in conflict with the law and its association with implicit self-stigma · 2026 · DOI

  • Yet, it remains unclear whether this support extends uniformly across contexts, which has important implications for our understanding of public attitudes about police.

    Christian nationalism, race, and contingent support for law enforcement: Results from two survey experiments · 2026 · DOI

  • Although collective violence remains a pervasive issue affecting many societies today, the specific psychological mechanisms underlying individual differences in support for collective violence are relatively understudied.

    Conceptualizing and Measuring Support for Collective Violence · 2026 · DOI

  • Abstract The immigration debate is a major source of political conflict, yet little is known about how citizens themselves perceive it.

    Uncovering Mutual Understanding on Immigration with Open-Ended Survey Questions · 2026 · DOI

  • Although grievance can elicit negative emotions, its role in shaping violence‐related tendencies remains unclear.

    Grievance fuels aggressive intergroup inclinations and justification of political violence through hatred rather than anger · 2026 · DOI

  • At the same time, research on racism in Poland, a highly racially homogeneous country, is scarce.

    Two Forms of Racism in Poland as an Explanation of Ideologically Driven Anti‐Refugee Hostility · 2026 · DOI

  • Yet, it remains unclear whether this inequality‐driven fragmentation spills over to shape individuals' attitudes towards foreign entities.

    Fractures from the inside out: The antagonistic impacts of economic inequality on attitudes towards foreign entities · 2026 · DOI

  • To better evaluate the potential of confrontation as a prejudice reduction technique, future research should examine whether confronting prejudice reduces different forms of intergroup bias in more diverse participant samples and settings, over longer periods, and further test theoretical mediators of these effects.

    Does confronting prejudice reduce intergroup bias? A meta-analytic review. · 2025 · DOI

  • Results also revealed that studies with lower risk of bias yielded stronger effects, as well as mixed evidence of publication bias and little evidence of small-study bias.

    Internalized racism and personal self-esteem among ethnoracial minoritized groups: A meta-analytic review. · 2025 · DOI

  • Critically, exclusive inclusion of cross-sectional studies in this meta-analysis limits causal interpretations, and it remains unclear whether low self-esteem leads individuals to internalize racism or vice versa.

    Internalized racism and personal self-esteem among ethnoracial minoritized groups: A meta-analytic review. · 2025 · DOI

  • The combination of descriptive minority and injunctive majority social norm appeals has not been thoroughly investigated. The role of environment related dispositions in the context of social norm appeals is not well understood.

    They approve but they don’t act: promoting sustainable minority behavior with (conflicting) social norm appeals · 2024 · DOI

  • Deep canvassing is one of few attitude-change interventions repeatedly shown to work, yet it has not been examined in the context of anticarceral issues.

    Race Talk to Change Carceral Attitudes: A Field Experiment on Deep Canvass Organizing · 2024 · DOI

  • Yet it remains unclear how these malevolent tendencies towards outgroups relate to sadism.

    Sadism in the context of intergroup aggression · 2024 · DOI

  • To date, there have been mixed findings regarding these associations; some of this inconsistency may be due to the difficulty in accurately conceptualizing and assessing implicit attitudes toward violence.

    Using reaction time procedures to assess implicit attitudes toward violence in a nonconvicted male sample · 2024 · DOI

  • In summary, the evidence favoring a gender role interpretation of the findings is inconclusive, given the relatively weak effects of the content of the impressions subjects formed.

    Sex Differences in Conformity: Status and Gender Role Interpretations · 1986 · DOI

  • The study relies on samples that are not fully representative of the United States or any other country. The online environment of the study may have contributed to the lack of awareness found. The conditions used in the study are unusual and may not generalize to other contexts.

    Unconscious mental content in implicit evaluation: Evidence from misprediction · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should investigate the mechanisms underlying implicit evaluation predictions in more detail. Future research should explore the implications of the study's findings for public education programs and interventions aimed at changing implicit evaluations.

    Unconscious mental content in implicit evaluation: Evidence from misprediction · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of consistent sex differences in multitasking abilities in past research. There is a need for a novel multitasking paradigm that simulates real-life scenarios.

    Men talk less than women during multitasking · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the literature on the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in enhancing self-integrity among middle school migrant girls. The study aims to address this gap by exploring the effect of self-affirmation interventions on the self-integrity of middle school migrant girls.

    Strengthening self-integrity through self-affirmation · 2026 · DOI

  • The body of research on the effects of PMT is still very limited. Most longitudinal studies about PMT focus exclusively on between-person associations.

    From informed to overwhelmed: The dual dynamics of political microtargeting exposure on political interest and involvement · 2026 · DOI

  • Further investigation of the China factor's impact on IU views. Examination of other external factors that may affect IU views. Development of strategies to address the IU issue based on the study's findings.

    Does the China factor matter? The effects of mainland China-related impressions and experiences on independence–unification views in Taiwan · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of attention to external factors like the China factor in existing literature. The need to distinguish between the short-term and long-term effects of factors on IU views.

    Does the China factor matter? The effects of mainland China-related impressions and experiences on independence–unification views in Taiwan · 2026 · DOI

  • Using data from a large national sample (N ~ 30,000) of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists in the rarely studied context of India, we found that an inclusive and tolerant conception of Indian national identity was strongly endorsed among all groups, while an exclusive Hindu national identity was more strongly endorsed by the Hindu majority than religious minorities.

    Conceptions of national identity and interreligious contact avoidance in differing domains: A multigroup analysis of majority and minority religious groups in India · 2026 · DOI

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780 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 8,556 Social and Intergroup Psychology papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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