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In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Sara Algoe, associate professor and Kenan Scholar in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Algoe has devoted her career to studying positive social connections, specifically the moments that characterize our very best relationships. We discuss her recent project, The LOVE Consortium, a global network of researchers striving to facilitate the collaborative use of archived data to advance the study of social connections.
Due to the in-depth nature of studies in her field, collecting data tends to require huge amounts of time and funding — which can be prohibitive, particularly for early-career researchers. Meanwhile, often only a small portion of the data collected by these large-scale projects winds up being used in the short-term, while the rest is left untouched until researchers are able to circle back to it in future projects.
By building The LOVE Consortium Dataverse with the help of Odum archivists, Dr. Algoe and her team have created a digital space where researchers can share and find data to analyze that might have otherwise gone unused and undiscovered, expanding scientific discovery while encouraging new collaborations.
We also chat about what drew her to the field of social psychology in the first place, what challenges she has faced in her own career, and what she loves most about her work.
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