Category Archives: Interest

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John Dovidio speaking at Wittenburg University, March 27

Stephanie Little, Chair of Psychology at Wittenburg University in Springfield, Ohio invites us to two invited lectures by John F. Dovidio, Professor of Psychology and Public Health at Yale University. He will present “Why Can’t We All Get Along? The Challenges of Race Relations in America” onn Wednesday, March 27, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in Bayley Auditorium (Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center). He will also present a colloquium, “Included But Invisible? The Intergroup Consequences of Colorblindness for Immigrant and Racial Minority Groups,” at 4:00pm (same location). She writes:

Although John F. Dovidio may best be known by the public for his expert commentary on the ABC series, “What Would You Do?” with John Quinones, Dr. Dovidio is widely recognized in the scientific community as a preeminent social psychologist, winning the Donald T. Campbell Award in Social Psychology in 2011 for career contributions to the field and the Kurt Lewin Award in 2004 by the Society for the Study of Social Issues for scholarly accomplishments.

Dr. Dovidio, along with his long-time collaborator, Samuel L. Gaertner, uncovered evidence supporting the notion of “aversive racism,” where well-intentioned Whites who see themselves as egalitarian and fair-minded toward African Americans may nevertheless harbor unconscious negative thoughts and feelings that can often result in discriminatory behavior. Because such discriminatory behavior is antithetical to their conscious beliefs, they tend to rationalize and deny that their negative behavior toward African Americans is racist. Such subtle forms of racism have recently become popularized and introduced into the public forum as implicit, as opposed to explicit, racism.

Dr. Dovidio not only identifies and illustrates modern forms of prejudice and their consequences through empirical investigations, he also demonstrates mechanisms for ameliorating their negative effects. For example, using their “Common Ingroup Identity Model” of intergroup relations, Dr. Dovidio and his colleagues have facilitated processes which can enhance trust and adherence to medical advice among White physicians and Black cancer patients. These procedures may ultimately be applicable to a wide range of problems confronting our multicultural society.

APA video competition

From COGDOP:

Make a creative video about psychological science and win $1,000!

It has never been more important to communicate the rigor and impact of psychological science to the public. APA is calling on you to rise to the challenge. Don’t miss this opportunity to share psychological science with the world!

Make a brief — two-minutes or less — video that creatively and accurately explains a concept or finding from psychological science. In April, up to 10 jury prize winners and one audience favorite will be chosen to each receive a prize of $1,000.

Winning videos will be featured on the PsycShorts contest website and will be screened later this summer at APA headquarters in Washington, D.C. and during the APA convention in Chicago.

APS campaign for basic research vs. clinical trials

Although APS members should have received this directly, others might want to also be aware of the current movement regarding NIH regulation of research. From Sarah Brookhart, APS:

Dear Colleague,

As you may be aware, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to classify basic research with human subjects as clinical trials. (If you’re not familiar with this issue, here is some background.)

Besides being objectionable on principle, NIH’s proposal would be a huge step backward for basic psychological science and its potential to address the most pressing health problems facing people today. It also would present significant practical problems for basic researchers applying for NIH grants, and basic research would be subject to the same policies and requirements that apply to clinical trials.

You have an opportunity to tell NIH that basic research with human subjects is not clinical trials.

NIH has issued a Request for Information (RFI) that has doubled down on intentions to classify basic research with human subjects as clinical trials. APS has strongly objected to this in responding to the NIH RFI, which you can read online, but it is critical that you also submit your own objection.

You are welcome to copy, modify, and/or paste the [sample response obtainable from Joe], modeled after APS’s response, to use as your own. Here are the steps to follow to submit your own response:

  1. Read APS’s response to NIH’s RFI.
  2. Click this link to access NIH’s RFI. (Don’t be distracted by the title. This is not an issue of registering and reporting research studies.)
  3. Enter your comments (using the text below if you’d like to).
  4. Submit the RFI form as soon as possible, but prior to November 12, 2018.
  5. Forward this message to colleagues, students, and others; post your thoughts about the issue on social media.
  6. Share your response with me at sarah.brookhart@psychologicalscience.org

APS has repeatedly told NIH it should not consider basic research with human subjects to be clinical trials, and that policies should be designed with basic science in mind, rather than shoehorning basic behavioral science into a mold designed for clinical trials. Please make this point central in any response you provide to the NIH RFI.

Thank you for attending to this important matter. I would be happy to hear from you if you have any questions. Please email me at sarah.brookhart@psychologicalscience.org.

Stats + Stories

Many of you might be interested in a podcast series produced by John Bailer (STA) he calls “Stats + Stories” that is intended to convey interesting stories containing statistical information to a general audience. A recent episode featured Gerd Gigerenzer, with whom I worked many years ago as a graduate student, who talks about understanding and communicating risk. Other episodes involve better Bayesian reasoning, data analytics in sports, climate change, and other interesting topics with many high profile guests (as well as several colleagues).

Help guide the NSF future funding priorities

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the launch of the NSF 2026 Idea Machine, a prize competition to help set the U.S. agenda for fundamental research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM education. Participants can earn cash prizes and receive public recognition by suggesting the pressing research questions that need to be answered in the coming decade, the next set of “Big Ideas” for future investment by NSF. It’s an opportunity for researchers, the public and other interested stakeholders to contribute to NSF’s mission to support basic research and enable new discoveries that drive the U.S. economy, enhance national security and advance knowledge to sustain the country’s global leadership in science and engineering.

Entries will be accepted through October 26, 2018. For more information, including entry instructions, eligibility, rules, and judging criteria, please visit the NSF 2026 Idea Machine website

Updates on NIH clinical trial policy

From FABBS:

Larry Tabak says that NIH has developed a plan to “address the shared interests of involved stakeholders” and that NIH was “prepared to move forward so that [they] can widely communicate the delayed enforcement and lenient implementation described in the plan.”

NIH’s plan to address the concerns about the reach of the clinical trials policies looks very promising, but of course, the devil is in the details, and many of those details are not yet known. Here’s what we know:

(1)  NIH will delay enforcement of a registration and reporting system for basic science involving humans until July 1, 2019.

(2)  NIH will allow scientists to register and report their basic science research involving humans through other portals such as Open Science. Eventually, NIH will pull data elements from these portals in order to track what they fund and comply with their own reporting requirements to Congress.

(3)  A Request for Information (RFI) will be released soon so that NIH can get feedback on what reporting standards are appropriate for the range of basic science research involving humans. FABBS will respond, and we welcome input from our member societies and affiliates. Once the RFI is released, we will share it with you and seek your input.

(4)  NIH will be “flexible” and “lenient” with regard to enforcement of other clinical trial policies for basic science. Although NIH’s plan is not specific, presumably this applies to the requirements that basic scientists whose research was defined as a clinical trial respond only to clinical trial FOAs and take good clinical practice training. NIH had previously told us that Review would not change for basic scientists responding to a clinical trial FOA. We would welcome feedback from our community about the last two review cycles, although NIH’s new plan may also alleviate the concerns.

(5)  NIH will issue a Basic Science Parent FOA by October 30, 2018. We will interact with NIH over the coming months regarding this since it will be important to our sciences as the policies evolve.

What is still uncertain is how NIH will define basic science vs. a clinical trial. The plan itself references “basic science trials,” “public health trials,” and “prospective interventional human trials.” We will continue to interact with NIH to ensure that the definition of a clinical trial does not continue to capture basic science research involving humans.

For now, we consider NIH’s plan and engagement with us to be a very promising step. In addition, NIH’s plan (to be described in a NIH Guide Notice, which we will circulate to you) to be flexible and lenient in its implementation of the clinical trial policies as they relate to basic science studies should provide some reassurance to the basic science communities that FABBS represents.

Opportunity for research participants in Chicago

This came across the Judgment & Decision Making listserv, but it is potentially more broadly applicable. In short, it is an opportunity for you to recruit participants through the University of Chicago for simple protocols and surveys:

The Center for Decision Research (CDR) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is renewing our “Call for Studies” for Winter and Spring 2018. We offer researchers at other institutions an opportunity to conduct behavioral science research in two of our laboratories – one on the UChicago campus (college student and community participants), and the other in downtown Chicago (≈50% college students from colleges and trade schools, ≈50% general public; very diverse in ethnicity and age).

Join a community of researchers from 30 institutions in ten countries who have taken advantage of this exciting opportunity!

Eligible studies will be added to our labs’ offerings to our participants, and we will cover the bulk of the overhead costs associated with conducting the study (i.e., facilities and equipment costs, costs of RA time spent in actual data collection). You will only be responsible for the generation of the materials, the payment of participant compensation (typically, we pay $1 per every 5 minutes of participation), and the cost of minimal RA time spent in preparing your study to run (a flat rate of $50 per study for our RAs’ time spent in preparing and submitting materials to our IRB, and other study-related preparations)

For more information, or to request participation please use this link.

Join me at Charter Day Ball

Every three years, Miami celebrates its “birthday” in February 1809 with the Charter Day Ball, a fun and formal affair organized by students and open to the entire Miami community. The invitation from the event chairs is below:

Being a member of the Miami University community entitles you to a special bond. Love and Honor is a phrase that was coined to articulate the feelings that accompany anyone touched by our community. Honor encompasses how proud we all are of our affiliation, and love, the endearment we feel towards this unique hidden oasis nestled between corn fields.

On February 17th, 2018, Miami’s triennial birthday celebration, Charter Day Ball, will occur. The event will run from 8pm to 1am at John D. Millett Hall. This year, the theme is Into the Ivy.

We would like to personally invite you to the 2018 Charter Day Ball. It truly is a night you will not want to miss. A black tie affair, there will be live entertainment, dancing, hors d’oeuvres, and a special feeling of camaraderie and pride within our community.

Tickets [$40 for faculty/staff] are available online and in person through the Miami University Box Office. If you’re looking to purchase your tickets in person, the Box Office is located in the HOME Office, and open Monday – Friday, 8 am and 5 pm. Discount alert, if you purchase your ticket in a group of 8 or more, each ticket will be discounted by 5 dollars!

Feel free to reach out to us by email at charterdayball@miamioh.edu. We welcome questions, ideas, and opportunities! Further, we’d love to interact with you all on social media. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.