Due: July 15, 2026
The Social Psychology Program at NSF supports theoretically focused empirical investigations that advance fundamental social psychological explanations of human behavior, attitudes, and experience. Synopsis The Social Psychology Program invites research and infrastructure proposals that advance knowledge of how human behavior is influenced by macro- and micro-level social forces, including how thought, motivation, emotion, neural, and physiological processes explain ways of thinking about and relating to self and others. Proposed research should carry strong potential for groundbreaking discoveries about the power of social dynamics to shape peoples’ attitudes, behavior, and experience. Basic research that connects to emerging and ongoing global challenges is especially encouraged.
Proposals that develop new theories or methods are highly encouraged. Proposals involving non-human animals are considered only if the research offers clear and direct contributions to understanding human social behavior. Note: Proposals may be returned without review if the primary goal of the research is to improve clinical practice as its primary outcome, or contains disease-related goals, including work on the etiology, diagnosis or treatment of physical or mental illness or disease, medical abnormality, or clinical interventions. In assessing intellectual merit, the Social Psychology Program places highest priority on research that is theoretically grounded, based on empirical observation and validation, and with designs appropriate to the questions asked (including but not limited to experiments, naturalistic observations, field studies, longitudinal analyses, and computational modeling). In assessingbroader impacts, the Social Psychology Program places highest priority on proposals that offer strong potential to benefit society, strengthen national security interests, improve the quality of life, build STEM talent, enhance infrastructure for research and education, increase public engagement with science, and include a proactive plan for sharing the results with a wide variety of audiences.