Connecting Research to Practice
Ways we build connections between academia and practitioners to drive impact
Summary: We highlight ways More in Common engages with the academic community, including our most recent involvement with the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and provide resources for practitioners to stay abreast of the latest social psychology research (even if you’re not an academic!).
At More in Common, we often approach our research through a social psychology lens, generating insights that uncover the underlying values, beliefs, and attitudes of Americans. This enables us to identify not just what Americans think but why, thus allowing us to better understand the forces driving Americans apart and to increase our capability to connect and work together across differences.
While we often share insights with a variety of organizations in media, business, civil society, and government, the academic community is another key stakeholder for our work. We engage with academia in a few ways:
We build networks and organize events that bring together leading academics and practitioners, such as the Pluralism: Research to Impact convening we co-hosted last fall.
We regularly invite researchers to share their latest work with our team and partners. For example, on Thursday, March 7th, Harvard professor Dr. Mina Cikara will share some of her recent work on polarization and intergroup hostility. If you are interested in attending this presentation, add your name to our Speaker Series mailing list.
We lead a research fellows program, where we employ part-time PhD and post-doctorate candidates with expertise in related disciplines to advise on and contribute to our work. Learn more about our talented fellows Fred, Emily, and Jordan.
We also present our findings at various academic conferences and events.
MIC at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Recently, we were excited to send several members of our team to attend and present at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), the largest gathering of social and personality psychologists in the country. Over three days, thousands of academics and professionals gathered to share new research on how humans think, behave, and interact with each other. The conference allowed us the opportunity to showcase brand-new research, connect with other researchers, and keep abreast of trends in the field.
Below is an overview of what we shared and learned.
Connecting Nonprofits and Social Psychology Researchers
Research Fellow Dr. Fred Duong chaired a symposium titled “Non-profits Leveraging Social Psychology for Change,” which focused on highlighting non-profit organizations, such as MIC, that are taking strides in applying social psychology to solve real-world problems with measurable impact on society. To introduce the symposium, Dr. Duong shared highlights from MIC’s research portfolio, including empirically tested interventions to reduce partisan animosity as well as studies that evaluate how to equip campuses with better tools and skills for constructive dialogue.
As part of Dr. Duong’s symposium, MIC’s Research Associate Calista Small presented our findings from a video method we developed that reduces feelings of hostility between political party members from very negative to close- to- neutral. This work provided an example to other researchers on how we use empirically-tested theories from social psychology to develop new methods for achieving positive social change.
Uncovering Misperceptions and Common Ground in Religion and Politics in the U.S.
Research Fellow Emily Gerdin presented a sneak peek of the findings of a nationally representative survey we conducted recently on faith, politics, and polarization in the U.S. The goal of the project is to identify the real and perceived political divisions in major faith communities in the United States via focus groups, in-depth interviews, and large surveys. Our findings so far highlight vast misperceptions Americans have towards different faith communities. Stay tuned for our full report, scheduled for release this spring.
Resources
A common theme throughout the conference was the significant desire among researchers to seek avenues to deliver impactful outcomes from academic studies. Many academics expressed interest in opportunities to work with and collaborate with nonprofit or non-academic organizations.
Layla Dang, a behavioral and social science researcher who attended one of More in Common’s presentations, noted that “The symposium that you led has helped me get a better sense of approaching the nonprofit market as a research scientist.”
As an organization that is connected to both the academic and practitioner communities, we think it is important to continue to build bridges between the two.
In that spirit, we wanted to leave our readers with both some insights from SPSP and a few go-to resources for staying up to date on the latest findings in social psychology.
Insights From SPSP:
👉In a series of natural experiments, researchers find that the adoption of a new law via a referendum that provides more rights and access to a specific group (e.g. a minority group) leads to wider acceptance of that group's rights.
👉Some think people condemn actions that are morally ambiguous more harshly online (e.g., on X/Twitter) to look good in front of others. However, research shows this isn't the case. Studies reveal that whether the punishments are made in public or in private doesn’t impact the tendency to punish ambiguous wrongdoings.
👉GPT-4 can complete qualitative coding tasks just as reliably as human coders can, a finding which may save researchers time and resources in the future.
Go-To Resources on the Latest in Social Psychology:
👉The Greater Good Magazine: Articles and essays that help translate scientific research into tips and tools to help readers cultivate happiness and compassion.
👉The Power of Us Newsletter: A weekly newsletter about how to leverage the latest social psychology research in your daily life.
👉Moral Understanding Newsletter: A newsletter featuring the latest efforts by social psychologists to bridge social divides.
👉Marginalia Science Newsletter: A newsletter that highlights the work of early-career social scientists.
We hope these are helpful in your work (or, at the very least, interesting!). We look forward to sharing more findings from us or our partners that can continue to increase understanding of Americans’ values, beliefs, and attitudes.
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