Psychological scientists are often asked whether their work is basic or applied. In the latest column from the Association for Psychological Science's Advocacy Task Force, cognitive neuroscientist Allie Sinclair says there is no need to pick one.
Sinclair recently joined Rice University as an assistant professor, where she directs the Learning and Behavior Change Lab. She studies how people update their memories, beliefs and behaviours, with methods ranging from brain imaging to large-scale online field studies; during the COVID-19 pandemic she studied how people perceive and respond to health risks.
In the column she discusses the challenges and opportunities of launching a lab in the current political climate and emphasizes building a network of interdisciplinary collaborators, so that work on mechanisms can inform interventions and real-world problems can raise new basic questions.
The column belongs to an APS series on bringing psychological science into public policy and public understanding. For new behavioural science groups, it sketches a way of moving between the lab and the world rather than setting one against the other.
