Stanford SPARQ

Stanford SPARQ is a "do tank" in Stanford's Department of Psychology. Our mission is to create and share social psychological insights with people working to improve society.

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What We Do:

Stanford SPARQ, the Center for Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions, is a center in the Social Psychology Area of the Stanford University Department of Psychology. Founded by the late social psychologist Nalini Ambady in 2012, SPARQ is not just a think tank. Instead, SPARQ is a “do tank” that partners with practitioners in government, business, and nonprofits to craft solutions to our communities’ most pressing problems.

Programs

• Special Projects that bring together practitioner organizations and Stanford researchers to solve social problems
• Research Clinics that covene practitioners and researchers in 2-hour forums
• Training (including the SPARQshop) for undergraduate and graduate students in how to bridge psychological theory and real-world practice
• An online, practitioner-focused Solutions Catalog that presents scientifically tested fixes to social problems

Action Areas

• Criminal Justice
• Education
• Health
• Economic Development

Mission 

Create and share social psychological insights with people working to improve society.

Vision 

A world where people understand their behaviors both reflect and reinforce their environments, and where people use this understanding to promote justice, peace, and wellbeing.

Goals

• Help practitioners apply social psychology’s theories, methods, and findings in their work
• Improve social psychological theories and methods by applying them to real-world issues
• Train a new generation of social psychologists who bridge basic and applied research
• Work with media to identify and explain the social psychological forces driving this century’s most pressing problems

Values

• Compassion
• Empiricism
• Inclusion
• Optimism
• Practice-driven theory, and
• Theory-driven practice.