Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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I'm Dr Colin Sinclair.
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I'm an associate professor of social psychology and an affiliate
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of the clinical psychology program.
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I'm here today to tell you a little bit about
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my lab, which was the Social Relations Collaborative, as well
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as the different research projects that you could potentially be
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involved in if you choose to come here to Mississippi
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State University.
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So let's get started as mentioned.
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Um, not only in my an associate professor, but I
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also direct the Social Relations Collaborative, which you can check
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out on its website.
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It's Social Relations lab dot com, which is a subdivision
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of the Social Science Research Center, which is a research
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center affiliated with the university.
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At the research park that's just slightly across from campus.
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It is, Ah, large interdisciplinary center, which has researchers from
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all types of areas within the social sciences but also
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from computer science, data science, uh, kinesiology, and as a
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result, I have the fortune of working with students and
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fellow scholars from all different disciplines.
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Um, in my little picture here alone, I've got sociologists,
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criminologists, school psychologist, counseling psychologist who worked with me on
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a project about bullying, which I'll talk about in a
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minute. But I have also collaborated with researchers, um, philosophy
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in public policy and political science communications.
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Um, kinesiology, uh, anthropology.
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And I'm sure I'm forgetting How could I forget Robotics.
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I never thought I'd be doing research with robotics.
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Um, but here I am S o.
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That is one of the great things about being at
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the Social Science Research Center is that it's really kind
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of a think tank for research to address what are
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the pressing issues that are facing society.
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So let's talk about some of those, um, I have
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ah, lot of interests, and in part, this is due
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to all the different affiliations I have with a lot
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of different disciplines.
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But they seem to come back to trying to really
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make the world a better place by addressing some of
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the pressing issues that we're facing our society.
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And so I have a lot of different interests in
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life generally, um, e also teach a number of different
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courses. So I teach a course social psychology, But I
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also teach psychology and legal system, and I even developed
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a new course on the psychology of evil.
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But I also research just a lot of different topics,
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and I'm going to go through some of these areas
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where I have expertise, because that's where I will really
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be looking for collaborators.
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And I think it's important that I say collaborators because
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that really captures.
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I feel my mentoring approach.
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I've you students coming into my lab as just early
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scholars who are going to be partners on research endeavors.
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So I look for people to join the lab, then
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who share a passion for the work that we're doing
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as well as research generally.
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So research is to me just something that you do
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to get your thesis and dissertation all the way as
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requirements of a degree, because I am super passionate about
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research. Um, to me, research provides the tools thio address
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whatever question you are burning to address, and so it
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allows you to find the answers and then potentially, to
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develop solutions that can help you make a difference on
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a large scale.
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So really, I'm looking for early scholars who have that
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spark, that passion and real thirst for knowledge that I
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can help you develop further.
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So let's talk about some of the areas that I
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do this research in, and you can see if you
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fit and if it's something that you would be interested
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in, so most recently, my current funding is from the
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Department of Defense, where we are using open source intelligence.
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Thio identify potential threats from online posts made by international
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and domestic extremist groups.
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Now that sounds pretty extreme to me, but if you'd
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asked me even like five years ago if I'd be
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doing this, I probably would have said No, but likely
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just in different pals.
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So most recently, one of my students is going to
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be presenting at the psychology of extremism pre conference that
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SP SP, where we have done a content analysis of
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the posts of the rising Boogaloo extremist movement.
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I'll let you Google that if you don't know what
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it is, and so that's just an example.
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We're also gonna be looking at Q and on, and
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we've done projects looking at Isis.
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And so we're looking at all this open source intelligence
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to see if there's a way that we can identify
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from their posts, whether or not somebody that should be
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red flecked.
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I also just finished up a four year project that
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was funded by the National Institute of Justice.
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Looking at bullying in high schools and our local high
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schools, and in particular, we were really interested in what's
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called identity based or by space bullying, where we found
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that the majority of bullying instances that were happening in
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school were due to social identities, that it was kids
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being targeted because of their race.
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They're perceived immigration status, their perceived sexual orientation.
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And we feel it's important to address the group dynamics
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that are related thio, why bullying is happening and therefore
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how we might be able to prevent it better.
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I'm currently editing a special issue for frontiers and psychology,
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featuring this work as well as work from international scholars,
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looking advances in youth bullying research and with my research
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assistants. Currently, we're developing a new scale, assessing misconceptions that
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people hold about bullying, a bullying myth scale.
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I'm also currently developing a whole new program of research
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because this wasn't enough on looking at the proliferation of
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misinformation on social media.
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I have a block that you can find on psychology
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today, which, some of which have been featured on the
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conversation featuring my writing about this topic if you want
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to check it out.
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Thes blog's have also led to interviews on Al Jazeera
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was also on a radio show in Australia, and I
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even was asked to write questions for Senator Wicker's office
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because he was heading up the congressional hearing on misinformation
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back in October.
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So obviously, this is a timely and important topic, and
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I will be actively looking for collaborators on this.
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I do continue to work on issues related to violence
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against women.
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Just over Christmas break, I was interviewed on NPR talking
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about the rates of I P V or intimate partner
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violence being potentially on the increased during the pandemic.
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But I don't actually have any current projects on this
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topic. It's not that I am not open to them,
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but it's not as pressing as other things about which
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I currently have funding or as a new and emerging
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issue. I should also note that not everything, absolutely everything
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that I do is on the dark side of psychology.
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Um, I do have a minor and interpersonal relationships research
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along with minors in law and quantitative methods, and I
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am really interested still in finding collaborators who want to
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help me with carrying out my research, examining social network
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effects on the maintenance and deterioration of romantic relationships.
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I actually have a ted talk summarizing some of my
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research on in this domain so you can feel free
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to check that out on YouTube.
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But I'm particularly interested in the role of friends and
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families in helping or hurting interracial interfaith relationships.
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And so if this is something that you were interested
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in, hit me up mhm on a personal note.
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How you also today?
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I'm also a spouse and a parent.
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My partner and I have been together for 23 years.
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Now we have two awesome girls.
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Um, my daughter Sabine just turned 11, and, of course,
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we had a Harry Potter themed birthday as much as
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we could in a pandemic.
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It was a drive by birthday.
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She's house Hufflepuff.
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I'm Griffin Door.
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My spouse is Raven Claw.
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We've got him covered except for slithering.
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And then also, five years ago, we adopted my niece,
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Angelica, when she was 16.
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So she's still a kid to me.
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Even though she's now 22 I'm also a pet parent.
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These are my fluff, but, um he's This is Leah
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and Hannah.
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Um, well, Princess Leia and Han A Solo And I
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also have a really big, fluffy, cute bunny whose name
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is Luke Sky Hopper, and I was told that it
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would be chair.
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It would be cheating of me to share cute videos
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of Luke playing with Leah, but let it be known
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that such videos exist.
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They are available on Instagram.
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The dogs have their own INSTAGRAM account called Starkville Aussie
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Club, and you can find some videos there.
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But I'll just end on this little picture to illustrate
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to you that Luke and Leia are best friends, and
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that's why they're such cute videos of them playing together.
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That's not cheating, right?
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All right, there's any more questions I look forward to
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hearing from you, and I hope you enjoy your virtual
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tour of the MSU psychology department.