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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...

SPARQShop Builds Tools to Share Social Psych

Monday, December 12, 2016
Student presenting work
SPARQ is pleased to announce we're teaching a course next quarter on building tools to disseminate psychological research.

SPARQLab Teaches Students Psychology for the Real World

Friday, December 9, 2016
SPARQLab students from winter 2018

SPARQ aims to create and share social psychological insights with people working to improve society. Consistent with this mission, SPARQLab teaches new generations of students how psychology can help change the real world.

Director Crum Publishes Intriguing Study on Placebo Effects

Wednesday, November 30, 2016
SPARQ Health Director Alia Crum

A Stanford psychology experiment demonstrates that what a bystander says shapes not only what we think about a product, but also how our bodies respond to it. Healthcare providers and patients may use this finding to enhance the effectiveness of medical treatments, suggest the authors of the study, which was published on Nov. 22 in PLOS ONE.

Eberhardt Finds Places, Not Just People, Are Targets of Bias

Thursday, November 3, 2016
Professor of Psychology and SPARQ Faculty Co-Director Jennifer Eberhardt

New research by SPARQ Faculty Co-director Jennifer Eberhardt shows that people not only hold biases toward people of color, but the spaces they inhabit as well. People rated Black places as more unpleasant, less desirable, and poorer compared to White places, and were more willing to expose residents of Black neighborhoods to pollution by placing chemical plants, freeways, and other undesirable pieces of infrastructure in or near Black spaces.

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....

SPARQ Health Director Wins NIH Award

Wednesday, October 5, 2016
SPARQ health director Alia Crum
Congratulations to SPARQ Health Director Alia Crum, who just received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator Award. The award supports "exceptionally creative, early-career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects."

SPARQ Hosts Research Clinic on Bias in Impact Investing

Tuesday, August 2, 2016
A handful of coins sprouting a new plant.

SPARQ faculty co-directors Jennifer Eberhardt and Hazel Markus hosted a SPARQ Research Clinic in late July with a diverse group of faculty, investors, and professionals focused on the role of bias in impact investing. Impact investing refers to funding entrepreneurs with social and environmental causes, in addition to generating financial returns.

SPARQ Scientists Release Oakland Police Findings

Wednesday, June 15, 2016
SPARQ Scientists Release OPD Reports
In May of 2014, the City of Oakland engaged SPARQ researchers to examine race relations between the Oakland Police Department (OPD) and the Oakland community. Today, we released our findings in two reports. In the first, "Strategies for Change: Research Initiatives and Recommendations To Improve Police-Community Relations in Oakland, Calif.," we present evidence of pervasive racial discrimination in stops, searches, handcuffings, and arrests, as well as offer 50 recommendations for reforming police culture....

SPARQ Researcher's Op-Ed on Terrorism in 'The Guardian'

Monday, June 13, 2016
An Imam speaks to a crowd
In response to the Orlando massacre, SPARQ Research Scientist Sarah Lyons-Padilla penned an op-ed for "The Guardian" explaining how Islamophobia actually feeds terrorism. She writes, "The evidence shows that alienating an entire religious community...will make us less safe. There are better ways to fight extremism." Read the full article: "I've studied radicalization -- and Islamophobia often plants the seed"...

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