Lab FAQ

Because the title of the lab has “political” in it, sometimes people wonder if the lab has a particular liberal or conservative agenda. So: Are we liberal or conservative? And the answer is: We are neither; and we are both. Let's discuss both of these in turn. NEITHER: Although of course the various members of the lab have their own (often divergent) political opinions, the general outlook of the lab is that political psychology ought to be a science that is as independent of those positions as possible. We are interested in the facts relevant to how people think about all things political; we do not think it good science to determine a particular conclusion about those facts beforehand (otherwise known as a political “agenda”) and then force those facts to fit that conclusion. We think the relationship between science and political platforms ought to go largely from the facts to the platforms, not the other way around. The only way to do this effectively is to remove (as much as possible) our own political biases from research. Partially because of this, we encourage political diversity in our lab group, because it discourages too much single-minded ideological narrowness. 

Both:  That said, we often do projects with a particular outcome in mind, and sometimes the anticipated outcome has consequences that I know will irritate some political factions. Sometimes the people we may irritate are liberals; and sometimes the people we may irritate are conservatives. That's why I say "both," because our work might possibly be perceived as either liberal OR conservative, depending on the project. We are equal-opportunity irrataters! What this means for you is that (a) there is a possibility you could be working on a politically-charged project and (b) you may or may not "like" the possible outcome. My response: That is science. I may not like the actual outcome, either. But it doesn't matter, because science is about facts and not about what we happen to like. So while I generally try to put people on projects that they like and are comfortable with, if you feel so strongly about your political beliefs that you would never want to work on something that might challenge them, then do not apply for my lab.

Caveat: A large percentage of what we do is essentially irrelevant to political ideology; instead, it is relevant to a specific social or political psychology theory that has nothing to do with liberalism or conservatism. That's why I used to answer the question posed here with a simple "no." Yet over the years, that felt a little disingenuous, since I know sometimes I have specific political consequences in mind when I run a project. Usually those consequences involve reducing bias in some form. It turns out some people don't like it when you try to reduce bias!

Conclusion: All political, religious (or anti-religious), and social viewpoints are welcome in our lab (except blatant racism/hatred).  However, if you are hoping to push a particular political agenda besides finding out the truth about politics, then you may be disappointed.  We expect you to lay aside your agendas as much as possible for the purposes of research.  To us, they are obstacles to be overcome – biases to remove -- and not the goal of the lab.  This does not mean we discourage political participation (just the opposite), or that we’ll ask you to stop being a member of a political party!  It just means that we want you to have the mindset when you enter our lab that  -- although they may color all other aspects of your life – these beliefs ought NOT to cause you to do biased research.

We will have a weekly meeting, which we will set around your existing schedule; attendance at that meeting is mandatory and is not flexible. However, for the other work you do, generally your hours are flexible. Much of the work you are assigned to do on a week-to-week basis you can do on your own time, and as long as it gets done by the next week, I don’t care when you do it. There are sometimes some constraints (for example, if you are running a lab study, you must run it when students will show up, i.e., from 10 am to 5 pm), but within those constraints you can set your own schedule. What I expect of you is to set aside the exact number of hours per week you commit to in your schedule. Be honest in your assessment of how much time you have to commit.If you sign up for 6 hours, then have 6 hours in your schedule already allotted. Don't overcommit!

What you’ll be doing will depend in large part on which lab you are in and on which project you work on. It could entail any or all of the following:

• looking for archival materials – such as speeches from political leaders or tabular information about how much crime exists in each state (mostly internet research, but sometimes requires some library research)
• setting up speeches to be scored for integrative complexity (harder than it sounds!)
• practicing to become an integrative complexity scorer
• scoring speeches for integrative complexity
• preparing materials for lab studies (making photocopies, etc.)
• running laboratory experiments with psychology 100 students (includes memorizing and performing a script, posting the sign-up sheets, booking the room, keeping track of paperwork, tracking no-shows, labeling data, and other things as well)
• entering in data
• using psychinfo to look up relevant research
• doing some data analyses
• discussing ideas and generally having a good time

No. I treat everyone as if they do not know how to do any of these tasks, and I or someone else in the lab trains you “from the ground up.” You don’t need to worry about that; our lab meetings are largely devoted to training.

It depends. No undergraduates working in my lab for the first time are allowed authorship credit. If you work in my lab for a second semester, however, then you are sometimes given the opportunity to become an author on papers that come from the project(s) you work on. (However, Dr. Conway will always be the first author on these papers.) This means that if this is your first time working in my lab, you will not get authorship credit for what you do. If, however, (1) you are working in my lab a second time, (2) the project(s) you are working on are publishable, (3) I think you have earned authorship, (4) you contact me expressing interest in authorship, and (5) you are willing to do some writing, then you may get non-first-authorship credit. Ultimately I alone make that decision, though, so you should be prepared to live with that if you want to work in my lab. Note, too, that if you want to earn authorship credit, you must work on the writing outside of your normal lab hours – it is entirely intrinsically motivated!

Also, you should know that I do not initiate authorship discussions with undergraduates; that is, if you meet the criteria above but never contact me, you will not be offered authorship. So if you are interested in that, you need to make it clear to me by e-mailing me to that effect (see, I'm giving you permission to do so right here, so don't feel awkward about it! Normally, you should wait for professors to initiate it. But in this case, I'm expecting you to do so, or else I'll assume you aren't interested).

Finally, I am less likely these days to grant authorship potential to undergraduate students unless they have worked in my lab for three terms and done a very good job. This is because I am starting to take more graduate students and am focusing more effort on them in terms of publication opportunities. So while I consider folks for authorship credit after two terms, I am growing a little pickier about who I let do this, and becoming more inclined to focus on people who have been in the lab for a longer period of time.

(Actually no one asks me that…I just like to talk about it.) My vision for the lab is that it is largely student-run. What I mean is this: I design the projects and train some set of graduate and undergraduate students, but then that set of graduate and undergraduate students takes on a leadership role and trains other undergraduates, and so on. This means that I’m really interested in working with responsible folks who want to be in my lab for multiple terms. It also means that as a first-time lab person, you will likely be partially trained by either a graduate student or a successful undergraduate who has proven their ability in my lab in previous terms.

No. I do sometimes supervise projects that students design – and I encourage you to talk with me about that if you have an idea – but that is conceptually a different thing to me than my own lab. This lab does projects that are primarily of my design or our graduate students' designs; and although I seek and want your input into those projects, if you want to do your own project please do not apply for my lab. Rather, talk to me about doing an independent study. (Also note that I am more likely to work with you on an independent study if you have already worked in my lab; I do not take on very many independent studies because of a lack of time for these projects, and knowing that you are responsible and capable of independent work makes me more likely to do so).