About Me

Professional Bio

My research examines whether and how science self-corrects, focusing on psychology. I study the research methods and practices used in psychology, as well as structural systems in science, such as peer review. I also examine whether people know themselves, and where our blind spots are in our self-knowledge. I teach research methods.

I am editor in chief of Collabra: Psychology, one of the PIs on the repliCATS project, and the co-founder (with Brian Nosek) of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science.

CV [pdf]
Popular media articles
Videos of talks & lectures
Google Scholar Profile
[Blog] Sometimes I'm Wrong
[Podcast] The Black Goat (with Alexa Tullett & Sanjay Srivastava)
Contact: my email address is my first name at gmail dot com

Personal Bio

I live part time in Melbourne with my dog Hugo, and part time in Sydney with my partner Alex Holcombe and his kids.

My parents are French and Iranian. I was born in 1980 in France, grew up mostly in California, then lived in Minnesota, Austin, St. Louis, and back in California. Now, because of this tweet, I live and work in Australia. Be careful what you tweet.

My hobbies include tweeting, watching TV, traveling, sitting in cafes, petting dogs and other animals, reading, bushwalking (i.e., hiking), paddleboarding, and reading & critiquing other people's papers (sometimes for my job).

You can find some pictures of my previous dog, Bear, here and here.

Research Group

We are social & personality psychologists studying social & personality psychologists and other people.

Metascience

The metascience part of our work examines practices and norms in psychology (and beyond), including what research methods are commonly used, how to evaluate the quality of research in psychology, and how to improve peer review.

Social & Personality Psychology

We also examine how well people know themselves. Are we aware of our own behaviour and of how others see us? Do others sometimes know us better than we know ourselves? Where are the blind spots in our self-knowledge?

Sometimes, we combine these two lines of research and examine how scientists perceive themselves, how they behave, and how they are perceived by others.

University of Melbourne & UC Davis

Sarah Schiavone

Sarah is a PhD student in psychology at UC Davis, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and a member of the MetaMelb research group at the University of Melbourne. She received a B.S. from the University of North Alabama and an M.S. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Kentucky. Her research explores perceptions of scientists and scientific practices, evaluations of research quality (within and outside of traditional peer review), and changes in the characteristics and credibility of research published in social and personality psychology over time. Sarah is also interested in the development of tools and guidelines to improve the peer review process and to aid researchers in identifying threats to the validity of psychological research

Website
Google Scholar Profile

Julia Bottesini

Julia is a PhD student at UC Davis studying metascience, statistical and research practices, and quantitative psychology. Her current research examines how less high-profile research stakeholders, like study participants and science journalists, think about scientists’ research practices.

Website

Jack Friedrich

Jack is a psychology honors student at UC Davis. His project documents trends in transparency and errors in statistical reporting in I-O psychology. As a PhD student in I-O psychology starting in 2021, Jack plans to pursue rigorous and reproducible science in psychometrics, occupational health, and personality.

Beth Clarke

Beth is a psychology honours student at the University of Melbourne. Upon completing her Bachelor of Arts in 2020, her double majors in Psychology and Philosophy lead her to an interest in metascience - particularly in relation to Social and Personality Psychology.

Salome Tong

Salome is a Psychology Honours student at the University of Melbourne.

Victoria Freeman

Tori is a Psychology Honours student at the University of Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is looking forward to the challenge of a metascience project that explores linguistics in Personality and Social Psychology.

Alexander Park

Alex is a Marketing Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School (and a former student and honorary member of Simine's lab). His research interests are judgment and decision-making, financial decision-making, consumer behavior, and meta-science.

Hugo

Hugo moved from Davis to Melbourne. He is still getting used to walking on the left side. He sticks his tongue out to the side when he is deliriously happy.

Research Assistants

We have a fantastic group of research assistants. We typically take a group photo every term, but have been unable to due to the pandemic. They are a vital part of our research group.