Starting a science policy group on campus? SNAP wants to help! 🙋 SNAPStart mini-grants offer up to $1,000 to help new or relaunched student #SciPol orgs get off the ground. Apply now through August 31st! Learn more: snapcoalition.org/initiatives/... (please apply and take our money 🫱💵🫲)

A study finds that reminding people that protection against COVID-19 weakens over time—either through a flyer or an interactive tool—is more effective at motivating people to get vaccinated than existing CDC messaging. In PNAS Nexus: https://ow.ly/TJ9u50Znxht

📣New paper in @pnasnexus.org! We find that giving people personalized feedback about immunity effectively changes perceived risk & motivates vaccination. 🧵⤵️ academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar... @gregoryrsl.bsky.social, @joshuasweitz.bsky.social, @beckettstephen.bsky.social, Morgan Taylor, Aroon Chande

Personalized feedback about immunity corrects risk misestimation and motivates vaccination

Abstract. Beliefs about immunity may have important consequences for health behaviors. For instance, people who overestimate their protection against a dis

academic.oup.com

📣New paper in @pnasnexus.org! We find that giving people personalized feedback about immunity effectively changes perceived risk & motivates vaccination. 🧵⤵️ academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar... @gregoryrsl.bsky.social, @joshuasweitz.bsky.social, @beckettstephen.bsky.social, Morgan Taylor, Aroon Chande

Personalized feedback about immunity corrects risk misestimation and motivates vaccination

Abstract. Beliefs about immunity may have important consequences for health behaviors. For instance, people who overestimate their protection against a dis

academic.oup.com

New Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project (#SCIMaP) analysis on the impact of the WH plan to eliminate NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate. @malar0ne.bsky.social @asinclair.bsky.social @cl10.bsky.social @alexmusicwrites.bsky.social scienceimpacts.org/insights/SBE...

Interested in memory updating, exploration, structure learning, & reward? @hannahtarder-stoll.bsky.social & I are looking for candidates to apply for a Connected Minds Postdoctoral Fellowship at York University, with the opportunity to work at Rice too. Contact Hannah or me for details! #PsychJobs

New work out today w/ @mariamaly.bsky.social & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social! When learning a new link between two sequences (like a new transfer point on the subway), the hippocampus rapidly integrates representations to support flexible predictions. royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

The hippocampus rapidly integrates sequence representations during novel multistep predictions

Abstract. Memories for temporally extended sequences can be used adaptively to predict future events on multiple timescales, a function that relies on the

royalsocietypublishing.org

Excited to share this work on moral reframing of climate change, led by @diegoreinero.bsky.social! Against common assumptions, liberals & conservatives often choose the same top moral value. Personalizing messaging to one’s top value works, but misassuming based on partisan assumptions backfires!

Diego Reinero, Ph.D.@diegoreinero.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨 New preprint out! 🚨 We’ve spent years assuming liberals and conservatives prioritize fundamentally different moral values—and designing persuasive messages based on that assumption. Our data suggest there's more to the story, and that making that assumption can backfire.

Jay Bhattacharya just censored a study that was about to be published cuz it showed the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, contradicting everything that his MAHA movement believes in He pulled it from the journal it was going to be published in (MMWR) But he gets to lecture us on, um, integrity 🙃

Katy Milkman@katymilkman.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm co-organizing a free, 2-day Zoom workshop from the NAS & hope you'll consider attending! 📅 April 23-24: Discuss how we can enhance scientific integrity in the social and behavioral sciences REGISTER: www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DBA... PROGRAM: www.nationalacademies.org/cdn/material...

Thank you to @whyy.org for casting a spotlight on the impacts of science funding cuts in our conversation today with @maxkozlov.bsky.social. Check out the recording below ⬇️

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'll be on @whyy.org with @asinclair.bsky.social at 12:15p ET to talk about how US labs have tightened budgets, clinical trials have been scaled back or delayed, and how a generation of young scientists faces an increasingly uncertain future. Tune in here!

The White House is again proposing big budget cuts to NIH and NSF. Last year, Congress rejected the proposal to slash science funding— but it's happening again, and we need to fight back. Explore our interactive map to see how the budget cuts will impact your local area. 🧵 scienceimpacts.org/fy27

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

View Projected Impact of the FY2027 Budget Cuts to the NIH and NSF

scienceimpacts.org

📣 MAJOR website update at scienceimpacts.org! New interactive maps show the local impacts of science funding cuts, including the White House FY2027 budget proposal, which would reduce NSF funding by 55% and NIH by 10%. We estimate $35B in economic losses and 150k lost jobs nationwide if enacted.

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

scienceimpacts.org

Joshua Weitz@joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets. Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US. scienceimpacts.org 🧵

I'm thrilled to introduce the inaugural cohort of my lab, the Learning & Behavior Change Lab at Rice!! 🤩 I'm so excited to have the opportunity to work with these stellar budding scientists. As a team, we'll bridge basic cognitive neuroscience with real-world applications. 🧵 www.sinclairlab-rice.com

Sinclair Lab

The Learning & Behavior Change Lab at Rice University, directed by Dr. Sinclair

sinclairlab-rice.com

Grant Witness is hiring! We're seeking a full-time data scientist to join our team building data resources to support journalism, litigation, and activism protecting science, public health, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/apply.html #rstats

‼️ We are on track for a staggering 98% reduction in posted NIH funding opportunities this year relative to historical norms. Political review and red tape are blocking approval of funding announcements across the board. See Elizabeth Ginexi’s analysis: elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/i-wrote-re...

I Wrote Research Funding Announcements for NIH for 22 Years. This Year They’ve Published 14

How NIH went from 756 funding announcements to 14 in two years — and what it means for every disease that depends on federal research

elizabethginexi.substack.com

Abruptly switching to multiyear funding means the same annual budget gets allocated to far fewer projects, making it even harder to get grants. Congress may have shot down the drastic budget cuts proposed by the White House, but the NIH is finding other ways to award fewer grants. Fight’s not over.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Working on a NIH multiyear funding tracker... This looks at the amount of multiyear funding (grants having a budget period 366 days or longer) for new and competitive renewal awards divided by the total amount of new and competitive renewal award funding over the same period. 1/5

#CNS2026 Join our workshop TODAY and bring a free “Brain Box” lunch from the foyer! In the face of threats to science funding + higher ed, we share exciting science advocacy and communication efforts. We hope it will be actionable and energizing despite the challenges we face. @cnsmtg.bsky.social

#CNS2026 I’m presenting at board C17 in the poster session today (w/ ice cream social!) from 5-7 PM! Come chat about how the affective framing of info shapes decision making and memory, and harnessing these insights to support engagement with news about climate change + health. @cnsmtg.bsky.social

Many thanks to cofounder @asinclair.bsky.social & the entire SCIMaP team (scienceimpacts.org) for collaborative work to confront federal cuts to science and medical research; together, our effort was recognized as a 2025 Public Health Hero in @thenation.com. a 🧵 www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Public Health Heroes of 2025

The Trump administration wants to destroy our health infrastructure. These warriors aren't letting that happen without a fight.

thenation.com

🚨📣 We’re recruiting a postdoc! 📣🚨 Are you curious about how the environments in which people spend time influence their health? Are you motivated by research that promotes climate action, resilience, and wellbeing? Read more and apply here: www.asc.upenn.edu/node/5905

Postdoctoral Researcher

asc.upenn.edu

Check out our new preprint, led by @dcosme.bsky.social, highlighting evidence-based strategies to motivate youth to vote!

Dani Cosme@dcosme.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Young voters played a key role in elections across the country last week. It’s fantastic to see record turnout in so many communities AND we still have so much room to grow! For ideas on how to motivate and support youth to vote check out our new commentary: osf.io/kyzh9_v1 Key points in 🧵

The Sinclair Lab website won an award for Best Research Lab or Group Website! Check out the website and the other winners here: theacademicdesigner.com/2025/winners... www.sinclairlab-rice.com

Jennifer van Alstyne@jenvanalstyne.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Winners of the Best Personal Academic Websites Contest have just been announced! 🏆 We hope these websites inspire you to create your own space as a faculty, researcher, or grad student. Hosted by @jenvanalstyne.bsky.social, @owlstown.com, and Brittany Trinh theacademicdesigner.com/2025/winners...

🗳️📣Happy election day!! What motivates young people to vote? In a new preprint, we share key findings from our collaboration with undergraduate students where we developed and tested a theory-guided GOTV messaging campaign doi.org/10.31234/osf... (1/5)

Great talk from @asinclair.bsky.social! Definitely check it out if you missed it.

Motivated Cognition Meetings@motcogmeet.bsky.social · 9mo ago

ICYMI: Here's the link from today's talk on Motivational States Bias Choices, Information Consumption, and Memory by Dr. Alissa Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social: youtu.be/WnEy3f3fn8g

I’ll be presenting in the MindCORE seminar this Friday! Come hear about exciting empirical insights from our SCIMaP studies, and opportunities to build resilience and engage in advocacy.

MindCORE at the University of Pennsylvania@pennmindcore.bsky.social · 9mo ago

MindCORE Seminar Friday, October 31 👻🎃, Noon 111 NBS (formerly Levin) @sas.upenn.edu Pizza & candy. BYOB. Open to all. Allie Sinclair Annenberg Public Policy Center Resistance and Resilience: Science Communication and Advocacy in a Federal Funding Crisis @appc.upenn.edu @asinclair.bsky.social

New environmental psychology jobs: 1 full professor, 2 postdocs: Lüneburg, Germany is hiring a Full Professor in “Psychology, in particular Behavior Change and Sustainability Transformation”. www.leuphana.de/en/universit... 1/3

I’ve been thinking of Trump’s government as the Regime of Type One Error. In statistics, Type 1 error is when you get a false positive, or claim to have found a relationship that isn’t really real. It’s like convicting someone who is actually innocent, for example.

Amidst a government shutdown in which the White House has proposed slashing federal support of science by billions of dollars, our #SCIMaP team continues to assess the impact of research cuts on communities nationwide. Learn more about our efforts: scienceimpacts.org With more to come... a 🧵

I will be recruiting 🌟PhD students🌟 for my newish lab! If you're interested in learning & memory mechanisms applied to individual, interactive & collective behavior using computational modeling, real-world experiments and fMRI, email me! RTs much appreciated 🙏 rouhanilab.com

Coming up on October 28! Dr. Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social (UPenn/Rice) will be presenting in @motcogmeet.bsky.social series: "Motivational States Bias Choices, Information Consumption, and Memory" 1/