• Question: How do you think your work will contribute to society?

    Asked by anon-179454 to Amy, Claire, Daniel, John, Maria, Stephen on 12 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Daniel Jolley

      Daniel Jolley answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Hi,
      Thanks for the question – which is excellent.
      I think my work contributes in several ways – not only are we highlighting the dangers of conspiracy theories, we are developing ways to help with the negative consequences. People need to vaccinate and to engage in carbon friendly behaviours. We are therefore testing ways to reduce people’s belief in conspiracy theories. One way could be the use of counter-arguments (e.g., vaccines are safe!) or other more interesting techniques. The aim is to try and ensure society remains running smoothly.
      Cheers,
      Daniel.

    • Photo: Amy Pearson

      Amy Pearson answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      This is a great question (and something that I ask myself constantly as a scientist). My research helps add to our understanding of how minds work and how people think. Hopefully it will contribute to what we know about how people learn to communicate and socialise with each other, and the kinds of things that affect our ability to socialise ‘smoothly’.
      It also adds to our understanding of autism, and shows that people have different ways of doing the same things, but that doesnt make one way ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, and thats a good thing for people (especially teachers who work with autistic students) to know.

    • Photo: Claire Melia

      Claire Melia answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      This is something i’m always thinking about so i’m glad you asked!

      With my current research i’m hoping to help develop guidance for awareness and information campaigns. This will help to make sure these campaigns tap into some of the common discourses for talking about alcohol use to try and make them more effective. In the long term I want to really open up the conversation about alcohol use and abuse. We have started to have the conversation about mental health, but not so much for alcohol! I really want to help reduce stigmatisation of alcohol addiction and get people talking about it so we can get more people into treatment and provide the support they need. It’s a big dream, but why not?!

    • Photo: Stephen Baillargeon

      Stephen Baillargeon answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Any research on how to reduce anxiety and depression and promote happiness has the potential to make everyone’s quality of life better. The unique focus my research has is that I also focus on rational thinking. If people behave, vote, and live more rationally, there will be fewer tyrannical leaders elected to democratic countries, laws regarding health and safety will be approached better, people will make healthier decisions, and the economy will improve, reducing poverty. The impacts are small and only work if I spread the information as far as possible, so I’m making that an exceptionally high priority in my life.

    • Photo: Maria Montefinese

      Maria Montefinese answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      HI! 🙂 This is a really a good question! Thank you! I think that my research can have many implications for the society. On the one hand, my research on the organization of the words in the brain can help to improve rehabilitation techniques for people with a deficit in language comprehension or production following a stroke, for example. On the other hand, I think that in the long run, the use of the pupil response as a measure of false memory and lie detection could have many applications in the criminology, such as, for example, in the interviews with suspects in court.
      All the best,
      Maria

Comments