Making research matter: A psychologist''s guide to public engagement
ISBN: 9781433828386
Platform/Publisher: PsycBOOKS / American Psychological Association
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapter; Download: Chapter
Subjects: Professional Personnel Attitudes & Characteristics;

This volume gathers well‑known experts to discuss how researchers can impact a broader audience, by lending their scientific expertise to pressing social issues, current events, and public debates.



The landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court cited psychological evidence in overturning school segregation, is just one example of the positive and noteworthy impact social science research can have on the world beyond academia. But many researchers today have trouble communicating with non-academic audiences and engaging the broader society.



With pointers on talking to the media, testifying as an expert witness, dealing with governmental organizations, working with schools and students, and influencing public policy, this volume helps social scientists forge the vital link between scholarship and social engagement. Contributors include prominent experts from a wide‑range of specialties, such as academic psychologists, Harvard Business School professors, directors of organizations, and government officials.

Linda R. Tropp, PhD, is a professor of social psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, from which she received the Distinguished Academic Outreach Award for excellence in the application of scientific knowledge to advance the public good. A Fellow of APA and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Tropp has received scholarly awards from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the International Society of Political Psychology. She has been cited in numerous news outlets (including New York Times , Boston Globe , Wall Street Journal , New Republic , O Magazine , U.S. News and World Report , Salon , and Huffington Post , among others), invited to author blogs for Psychology Today and APA, and interviewed on radio and television (including PBS News Hour , NPR's Talk of the Nation , and New England Public Radio). She has presented social science research at several congressional briefings and has worked with national organizations to translate research evidence for U.S. Supreme Court cases relevant to racial integration, discrimination, and immigration. She regularly works on state and national initiatives to improve interracial relations and promote racial justice, and with international organizations to evaluate programs designed to reduce racial and ethnic conflict. Tropp is coeditor of Moving Beyond Prejudice Reduction: Pathways to Positive Intergroup Relations (2011), coauthor of When Groups Meet: The Dynamics of Intergroup Contact (2011), and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Intergroup Conflict (2012).


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