• Question: why do you think you should get the money over the others?

    Asked by anon-179453 to Claire, Stephen, Maria, John, Daniel, Amy on 11 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Stephen Baillargeon

      Stephen Baillargeon answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      I don’t know the others well enough to make a comparison, but I should get money because I plan to use it to make the world a better place by focusing on providing easy to access information about how to be happy and how to generally be a positive influence on the world. Making people rational is something I’m focusing on more than most researchers, and that has potential to make elections run more smoothly and help people select public policies more intelligently. These things are very important, but it’s tough for me to get started because it’s not something I expect to profit from personally on a financial level.

    • Photo: Daniel Jolley

      Daniel Jolley answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      Hi,
      Thanks for the question – definitely a good question to ask.
      There is the misconception that conspiracy theories are just believed by those who are paranoid and wear tin-foil hats, which means conspiracy theories are harmless. With the money, I want to develop resources that will help turn this misconception on its head. Instead of just writing my research in blog posts for example, I want to bring it to life. If we are able to learn about conspiracy theories, and that they may impact us, this could be a route to offer protection from their hidden impact. I, therefore, feel this project is very important – but I’m sure all the scientists will say the same thing 😊.
      Cheers,
      Daniel.

    • Photo: Amy Pearson

      Amy Pearson answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      Ooooh good question!
      I think all of the scientists have great ideas for what they want to do with the money, and I think any outreach activities are a worthwhile cause. I think I should get the money because despite autism being super common (around 1 in 88 people are autistic) there are so many misconceptions about what autism is, what autistic people are like, and what we can do to make sure they are happy and fulfilled. I would love to help organise training for people and set up a network where neurotypical (non-autistic people) can speak to autistic people and provide help and knowledge exchange.
      I also LOVE doing science outreach, but dont have very much equipment at the moment, so it would be nice to buy some cool stuff to show school and college students when they visit.
      I’m hoping that over the course of the week I can convince you that I deserve it!

    • Photo: Claire Melia

      Claire Melia answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      Oh wow, that’s a really tough question! I don’t think any singular person deserves it more than another, everyone has great ideas about what they would do with the money (yes, I snooped and checked out everyone’s profiles!).

      I think that being in school, both primary and secondary school, is a really impressionable time for students. You’re introduced to a lot of new opportunities and not all of them are good. Alcohol is one that most students will definitely face and it’s important that they understand the impact of alcohol and are able to make informed and sensible choices. Hopefully this will get students thinking about the impact of alcohol and make them more aware of how it might affect them personally. Also, if I can inspire even one student to become a psychologist, then I’ve done my job! I never really knew about what psychologists did until I went to university, so this would be a great opportunity to show students what I actually do.

      Also, my workshop would be run by myself and someone else from my university, so your teachers would get a well deserved break for the lesson!

    • Photo: Maria Montefinese

      Maria Montefinese answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Hi! 🙂 This is really a hard question! I think it’s really important to understand how word meanings are stored in the brain. Indeed, how our knowledge is organized seems also to determine what we call false memories. I really desire that people would be more aware of this phenomenon because our memories are not fixed. Indeed,with the power of suggestion it is quite simple to induce false memories. I discovered that the pupil size can be an indicator of false memory. Indeed, I discovered that when people remember something that it didn’t happened, their pupil response with a dilation. I already wrote two papers to disseminate these results to the scientific community, but I think it’s not enough. I really desire that people would be aware that using the pupil response as an indicator of the false memory is important, because it is quite simple to use, it does not create discomfort for the person, and it is quite cheap compare to the other technique used to understand how our brain works. The prize will allow me to create online games with words and images, which are related for some their characteristics able to create false memories and, a brochure describing how pupil response to the false memories works.
      All the best,
      Maria

Comments