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Personalized feedback about immunity corrects risk misestimation and motivates vaccination

Takeaway: Beliefs about immunity & risk shape health behaviors—not just vaccination, but risk-taking, diagnostic testing, etc. Personalized immunity feedback recalibrates risk perception & motivates vaccination. Beyond COVID, insights are relevant to flu + future pandemics. Open access paper ⬇️

academic.oup.com

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

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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 Although no longer actively maintained, the website offered immunity estimates and vaccination guidance for years!

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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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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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Imagining a personalized scenario selectively increases perceived risk of viral transmission for older adults - Nature Aging

The Immunity Estimator intervention was particularly effective for older adults, who especially benefit from maintaining immunity. In contrast, younger adults responded to waning immunity info whether or not it was personalized. This aligns w/ our prior findings: Personalization helps older adults.

nature.com

A cognitive intervention study for communicating information about COVID-19 transmission risk found that older adults tended to forget numerical information but reported increased perceived risk after...

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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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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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Reasons for Receiving or Not Receiving Bivalent COVID ...

The problem: Few people stay up-to-date on routine vaccinations (~21% for COVID-19, ~47% for flu). In prior work, we found that a key barrier is overconfidence in immunity. If you believe you're still protected, you don't expect to benefit much from a booster vaccine. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

cdc.gov

This report describes an online survey of previously vaccinated residents and their reasons for not getting a bivalent COVID-19 booster dose.

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Reposted by Allie Sinclair

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

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...

Insight blog

"Cuts to NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate will have significant economic impacts nationwide"
https://scienceimpacts.org/insights/SBE-2026-07-13

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

A PhD in Psychology or Neuroscience (or upcoming defense) is required. Preference for candidates w/ fMRI experience. Visa sponsorship is available for applicants outside Canada! Interested candidates can check out my lab website here and reach me at as667@rice.edu. sinclairlab.rice.edu

sinclairlab.rice.edu

Sinclair Lab

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

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

If awarded the fellowship, the postdoc would contribute to a planned project that uses a naturalistic, gamified task to investigate memory, prediction, and choice in evolving/uncertain environments. There will also be opportunities to conduct other behavioural and fMRI studies.

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

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

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Reposted by Allie Sinclair

Hannah Tarder-Stoll @hannahtarder-stoll.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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

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Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

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!

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Reposted by Allie Sinclair

Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

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 🙃

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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 ⬇️

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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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SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

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

scienceimpacts.org

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

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SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

📣 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.

scienceimpacts.org

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

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The mission of the lab is broad—We explore cognitive and neural mechanisms of learning, memory, and motivation. We apply those insights to support effective learning & behavior change across contexts: 🫀 health, 🌎 climate change, and 📚 education. I can't imagine a better team to build these bridges!

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.

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.

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.