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Asked by anon-304376 on 7 Dec 2021.
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Natalie Butcher answered on 18 Nov 2021:
My research hasn’t really altered my full view of the world but it has altered the way I think about certain things. For example my PhD is on the effect of race on face recognition, something called the other race effect, where people are better at recognising people of the same race as themselves than people of a different race to them. When I started the project I was pretty sceptical of this effect and thought it must be prejudiced rubbish it couldn’t possibly be true but I then started running my experiments and found that it is very much true and research suggests it isn’t related to prejudice or anything like that, its about cognitive processing. So this taught me to question my own assumptions and not always assume they are correct.
More generally, studying psychology has taught me to be a more critical thinker – I don’t believe what I read unless sound evidence is provided to support it. I hope that makes me less open to fake news that is prevalent these days
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Natali Bozhilova answered on 22 Nov 2021:
My research has definitely had an impact on me.
I have become more emphatic, compassionate, unassuming and understanding. I have also learned to use my words more wisely – mostly to support and love other people.
Science in general has helped me understand information better and be less susceptible to believe fake news or misleading information. I see this as a life-changing skill because ignorance can often be the source of most problems in life.
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Emily McDougal answered on 22 Nov 2021:
Not necessarily my specific research, but being a psychologist and scientist has definitely shaped how I think and process things.
For example, everyone is different and therefore there may be reasons people do certain things that I may not understand. My understanding of psychology has taught me to try and give people the benefit of the doubt if they do something I don’t agree with, because their view of the world may be very different from mine.
I think it has also led me to reflect a lot, which can sometimes be really helpful – for example, reflecting on why I reacted in a certain situation, to understand myself better and to make a change if needed (e.g. to apologise to someone I may have upset!) – but sometimes I over-reflect and this can lead to overly worrying about things that I should move on from!
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