Science House was my internship at the Gilbert Psychology Lab at Harvard, where I gained hands-on experience in psychological research while also working on ways to make academic findings more accessible to the public. My primary role involved contributing to the replication of “The Illusion of Moral Decline,” a study investigating the common yet often inaccurate belief that society’s moral values are deteriorating over time. This work connected directly to my academic interests in cognitive biases, belief systems, and social perception, particularly how people interpret social change and morality through personal and cultural lenses.

This internship fulfilled my Community Engaged Learning (CEL-2) requirement by allowing me to engage with psychological research in a real-world setting while working to bridge the gap between academia and public understanding. One of the critical challenges in psychology is that much of the research remains confined to academic journals, making it inaccessible to broader audiences. Through my work at Science House, I contributed to efforts aimed at making research findings more digestible and engaging for non-academic communities. Additionally, I started a blog as an extension of this work, where I intend to translate complex research findings into accessible, engaging content for a general audience. My goal with the blog is to make psychological concepts more approachable, covering topics related to cognitive biases, belief systems, grief, and social change. This experience strengthened my ability to communicate complex scientific ideas in an accessible way, which directly connects to my Division III research on grief, ritual, and end-of-life care. Just as I sought to make social psychology more understandable for a general audience, I aim to do the same with my Division III work, ensuring that research on death and bereavement is accessible to caregivers, hospice workers, and those outside of academia. Through this experience, I was able to apply my academic knowledge in a meaningful way while contributing to a broader effort to make psychological research more publicly relevant.