Editorial: Social psychological process and effects on the law

Studying social psychological processes entails disentangling how people perceive, interact in, and react to our social world. This framework has been increasingly applied to studying law, with growing interest in the ways in which social contexts intersect with legal institutions and decision-making. Although the law may be viewed as insulated from social contexts, it is in fact ever-changing and shaped over time by society. Work at this intersection offers insights into how social psychology can impact the law, but also informs the law about the ways in which the public engages with and perceives legal principles, practices, and proceedings.

Although research at this intersection has begun to grow in recent years, many areas of empirical and theoretical work in this area continue to be under-studied, particularly across different countries and legal systems, those using more interdisciplinary frameworks in the study of these relationships, and in considering broader understandings and applications of social psychological processes to studying the law...