SPSP is pleased to announce Xuan Zhao (Brown University) is the winner of this year’s Q&pAy. Q&pAy is a live small grants competition, hosted at the SPSP annual convention, which showcases three small research grant finalists pitching their grant proposals to a team of social and personality experts on stage who ask questions about the grant (significance, research methods, budget, etc).

Xuan received a $5,000 grant for her research, “Bonding in a Heartbeat: Can Feeling Others’ Heartbeat Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?” The research examines whether the haptic experience of feeling another’s heartbeat may increase people’s empathy and prosocial behavior toward a stranger and even an outgroup member, and may shed light on how social-personality psychologists can employ emerging technologies to heal our divided society.

A runner-up team in the competition consisted of Stefanie Tignor (Northeastern University) and Jessica Tracy (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) for “A typology of ‘micro-transgressions’: The frequency, antecedents, and consequences of self-perceived wrongdoings.” Stefanie and Jessica’s research seeks to establish a typology of “micro-transgressions,” or, everyday immoral acts, and to illustrate their nature and frequency, identify the personality trait antecedents of how they are perceived, and characterize their consequences.

Another runner-up team in the competition was John Sakaluk (University of Victoria) and Emily Impett (University of Toronto Mississauga) for their study, “The Sounds of Sex: A Naturalistic Study of the Function(s) of Human Sexual Vocalizations.” John and Emily’s research is a daily-diary study during which, for the first time, audio of couples’ naturalistic sexual interactions will be recorded to understand the psychological, relational, and sexual correlates of sexual vocalizations. Both runner-up projects received $2,500.

SPSP spoke with the finalists about how they got the idea for their research, why their research matters, its possible practical applications, how the grant money will advance their projects, and more. You can read the interviews with Xuan, Stefanie, and John. Stay tuned for details on how you can compete in the 2018 Q&pAy next March at the 2018 SPSP Annual Convention in Atlanta!