iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

To scale up our intervention, we created an Immunity Estimator website (in English + Spanish). We replicated our findings in a new, nationally-rep sample of people who used the website. Although no longer actively maintained, the website offered immunity estimates and vaccination guidance for years!

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

But are there any lasting effects? Yes! 2 months later, changes to risk perception stuck. Participants who got info about waning immunity were substantially more likely to report getting a vaccine dose post-intervention, relative to a national benchmark (>7% vs. 1%).

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Politically liberal participants showed greater changes to perceived risk in response to the intervention, but there were still significant effects for conservatives. However, the intervention did not change perceived risk for individuals who had never received any COVID-19 vaccine doses.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

At baseline, people were poor judges of their own immunity. Our Immunity Estimator intervention effectively recalibrated perceived risk of infection & severe disease. Non-personalized information about waning immunity (Alt-Flyer) helped somewhat, but the CDC Flyer did not change perceived risk.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

So, we targeted beliefs about immunity. Our Immunity Estimator intervention gave personalized feedback about estimated protection against COVID-19, based on personal vaccine/infection history. We tested this against a CDC vaccine flyer and a modified flyer that added info about waning immunity.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Select a region and click "View Full Scorecard" to get a shareable, downloadable fact sheet about how NIH and NSF funding cuts would impact your area. Share with your representatives! Here's my new home, Houston.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Lorena Nunes: Lab Manager. Lorena (she/her) earned a B.S. in Psychological Sciences and MS in Neuroscience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her interests focus on health psychology and effects of stress on biopsychosocial health. She also works in the SWEL Lab at Rice w/ @erinstanden.bsky.social.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Summer (Tiange) Lu: PhD student. Summer (she/her) earned her B.S. in Neurobiology from UC Irvine, where she did research w/ @eitans.bsky.social. She is interested in the neural mechanisms of memory transformation, especially how sleep, emotion, & prior knowledge influence consolidation and updating.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Rachael Veldman: PhD student. Rachael (she/her) earned her B.A. in Psychology from the University of St. Thomas and previously worked as a research assistant and lab manager in Dr. Bryan Denny’s T-SCAN Lab at Rice. She is interested in behavior change interventions, especially for climate change.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

#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

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

#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

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Attending #SNE2025? Come learn about how we applied insights from cognitive psych/neuro to inform policy-relevant decision making to address the current science funding crisis! I’ll be presenting a poster this afternoon from 2:45-4 PM, board #48 in the Skyline Foyer! @socforneuroecon.bsky.social

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Had a wonderful time ✨ exploring ✨ new ideas and meeting cool people at the Curiosity, Info Seeking, and Exploration symposium #CISE2025! Thanks to all the organizers and Brown for hosting! Hope to be back next time.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

In new analyses, we explored intervention effects on action intentions across levels of political ideology and belief in climate change (not excluding non-believers). Leading interventions were still effective for very conservative participants, and there were no significant backfire effects.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

In this @pnas.org Letter, we respond to a comment on our paper about behavioral interventions to motivate action on climate change. In new analyses exploring individual differences, we find that our leading interventions were effective across the political spectrum. 🧵⤵️ www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

As this preprint is picking up some steam again, here's a note that the link is temporarily not working because of a PsyArXiv issue. You can instead directly access the preprint PDF here: www.sinclairlab-rice.com/publications...

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Here’s my local area, Philly. You can share direct links to specific fact sheets, and also download fact sheets as PNG files to save and share. scienceimpacts.org/report?state...

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

We scaled these insights by creating a public website, where people can learn about how cuts to science funding will impact their local area. Data from website users offers converging evidence of effectiveness in terms of changing approval and motivating sharing. 7/8 scienceimpacts.org

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

The interventions decreased approval of the funding cuts across the political spectrum, though we also see strong main effects of political ideology. 6/8

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

The interventions led to some striking changes in approval of the funding cuts! Among people who were initially unsure what to think of the funding cuts, nearly half disapproved post-intervention. Among people who initially approved of the cuts, 26% disapproved post-intervention. 5/8

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

The interventions also motivated action to oppose the cuts: Participants reported greater intentions to contact their congressional representatives, talk to others, and share information online. Interventions w/ active engagement (quizzes, dynamic maps) were more effective at motivating action. 4/8

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Overall, relative to a Control condition, the interventions decreased approval of NIH funding cuts, increased self-reported knowledge, and led to more negative perceived local impact. 3/8

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

In this letter in @pnas.org, we respond to a comment on our recent paper. Although multiple factors shape whether we act on our intentions, intentions are valuable precursors of behavior that can guide the iterative development of behavior change interventions. www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Attending #ICA25? I’m presenting twice! Today (Sat) 10:30-11:45: imagination interventions motivate pro-environmental behaviors Mon 12-1:15: affective framing of news headlines influences engagement, donations, and memory @falklab.bsky.social @asc.upenn.edu @penncssm.bsky.social @appc.upenn.edu

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

We appreciate your engagement with our work. As stated in the paper, we certainly agree that actual behavior is the end goal, and that intentions are imperfect predictors of behavior. In ongoing work, we are testing leading interventions with measures of actual behavior over time. 1/2

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

📣 It's official: I'm super excited to share that I'll be joining Rice University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences! Lab will launch in Summer 2026— I'll be recruiting over the next year, so please spread the word! Short thread ⤵️

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Interventions that related climate change to yourself and close others were most effective for motivating people to share news headlines and petitions about climate change. 6/9

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Future thinking interventions motivated action—like imagining yourself in a preventable negative future scenario, or writing a letter to a young person about the world they will inherit. Interventions that emphasized environmental, personal, or social impact increased perceived impact. 5/9

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

We randomly assigned 7,624 participants to an intervention or the Control group, then tested everyone on 3 key outcomes: intentions to engage in actions that can help mitigate climate change, the perceived impact of these actions, and intentions to share news and petitions about climate change. 4/9

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

To address these barriers, we developed 17 intervention strategies that targeted one or more psychological mechanisms: future thinking, self- and social-relevance, and response efficacy. Some interventions hit multiple themes! 3/9

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Most people believe that climate change is happening, but few are taking action. Why? Barriers can include perceiving climate change as a distant future threat, not thinking of effects for you and people you care about, believing your actions don't matter, or not knowing how to take action. 2/9

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Attending #CNS2025? Come visit my poster Mon morning from 8-10 AM to hear about how affect shapes information seeking and sharing, charitable donations, and subsequent memory! @cogneuronews.bsky.social Preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

How can we motivate action to address climate change? We tested 17 psych interventions at once in a tournament! @falklab.bsky.social If you’re attending #psynom24, come to my talk from 11:40-12 TOMORROW (11/22) to find out the winning strategies! Marquis B-C! @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

We propose that when people evaluate an experience immediately, first impressions drive preferences. This bias can be useful when we are able to explore other options. Overnight, memory consolidation summarizes experiences in memory, guiding adaptive future choices.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

What if we ask about preferences immediately AND the next day? Surprise: The primacy bias sticks. People favor boxes with early rewards now AND later, even if they were tested on different boxes each time!

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

But wait! Preferences also depend on when you ask. After "sleeping on it" overnight, participants didn't care whether rewards were clustered at the beginning, middle, or end of an experience. Dense clusters of reward—at any time—were preferred over spread-out rewards.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Across 6 studies (!), we found that people were strongly biased by first impressions. People preferred and overestimated the value of boxes with early rewards.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

In our virtual "garage sale" game, participants opened boxes to find items they could sell at a garage sale. Each box had 20 unique objects w/ values. But secretly, all boxes were actually worth $5—we varied WHEN the high-value items appeared in the object sequence.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Across 6 studies (!), we found that people were strongly biased by first impressions. People preferred and overestimated the value of boxes with early rewards.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Interrogative motivation specifically boosted memory for high-value paintings, prioritizing rewarding stimuli in memory. Imperative participants didn't just have worse memory overall—they lost the boost for valuable paintings.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

But the next day, when participants returned for a surprise memory test, the Interrogative group performed better. They were more likely to remember the paintings they encountered in the art museum.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Motivation shifted choice strategies, too. Imperative participants made more exploitative choices (choosing to maximize reward earnings), whereas Interrogative participants engaged in more directed exploration (choosing to learn about more uncertain options)

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Imperative motivation boosted reward learning: Participants earned more money and made more optimal choices (choosing the objectively "best" door in terms of earning more money)

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Participants imagined being executing a heist at an art museum (imperative) or scouting for a future heist (interrogative). They then did the exact same reinforcement learning task, earning real bonus $. Choosing a door sampled a unique painting from a room of the museum.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Here, we tested the prediction that these motivational modes (imperative and interrogative) lead to a trade-off: short-term performance vs. long-term memory. How can we shift the balance?

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

When we're curious (interrogative motivation), we explore, discover, and form detailed memories for the future. But when we feel pressured by an urgent goal (imperative motivation), like avoiding danger or winning a competition, that pressure can narrow attention and memory.

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