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Research Clinics

Keeping Nextdoor Neighborly

Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Nextdoor logo

Nextdoor is a private social network whose mission is to provide a trusted platform where neighbors work together to build stronger, safer, happier communities, all over the world. SPARQ Faculty Affiliates joined a team from Nextdoor for a Research Clinic to discuss strategies for keeping conversations on the platform neighborly.

Helping People With Criminal Convictions Get Jobs: Research Clinic With the Center for Employment Opportunities

Friday, March 23, 2018

In the past 10 years, the Center for Employment Opportunities has placed more than 25,000 formerly incarcerated people into full-time jobs around the country. The organization wanted to know: How can it do better?

How Social Psychology Can Help UBI Proponents and Other Policy Advocates

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

At a meeting of Stanford social psychologists and advocates of universal basic income (UBI), conversations about the cultural challenges, presentation, and evaluation of this controversial policy yielded insights for people trying to make it a reality.

Echo Chambers? There's an App for That

Friday, February 24, 2017
MIT Logo
To combat echo chambers and isolation, MIT graduate students Mohammad Ghassemi and Tuka Al Hanai founded Connect, a web app that brings students from different backgrounds together over lunch. The founders want to bring their platform to Stanford and partner with social scientists to evaluate its effectiveness...

Preventing Financial Fraud

Saturday, October 15, 2016
Fraud Alert warning sign
100% of Americans are targets of scams. Yet most people think that financial fraud affects only the elderly and believe that they themselves would never fall for it. In fact, millions of Americans of all ages fall victim to scams, with costs of some $50 billion a year....

Bias in Impact Investing

Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Hands holding a pile of coins with a sprouting plant emerging from the coins
SPARQ faculty co-directors Jennifer Eberhardt and Hazel Markus hosted a SPARQ Research Clinic with a diverse group of faculty, investors, and professionals focused on the role of bias in impact investing. Impact investing refers to investments that generate social and environmental impact, in addition to financial returns....

Fighting Ebola With Film

Wednesday, December 10, 2014
We own tv logo

The latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed thousands of lives. In response, We Own TV, an NGO that trains people in Sierra Leone to create media, has launched a "Fighting Ebola with Film" series.

Building Diverse Learning Environments

Monday, November 10, 2014
Logo for the university school

What qualities should schools be cultivating in their students so that their graduates go on to lead meaningful and productive lives? And how can schools best teach and nurture an increasingly diverse student body? The University School, a private school for boys outside of Cleveland, OH, approached SPARQ with these intriguing questions. SPARQ Faculty Affiliates, including Carol Dweck, Geoff Cohen, Greg Walton, Hazel Markus, and Mark Lepper, drew on their extensive research in education to help the school hone its strategy.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

Monday, April 28, 2014
Kaiser permanente logo
Type II diabetes strikes some 26 million Americans and can result in blindness, amputation, and early death. Yet it is almost entirely preventable. Dr. Susan Brown of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research studies how to keep women of color from developing Type II diabetes. Our SPARQ Research Clinic with Dr. Brown explored how to tailor a diabetes-prevention program for women who are particularly vulnerable to Type II diabetes.

Inspiring Girl Scientists

Monday, February 24, 2014
she heroes logo

Children begin rejecting career options as early as age 8. To keep girls’ minds open to careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), SheHeroes creates videos that profile women superstars of STEM. The nonprofit also develops curricula that parents and teachers can use to talk to girls and boys about STEM careers. SPARQ worked with SheHeroes to apply the social science of persuasion and identity formation to the organization’s videos and programming.

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