The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (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 2017 SPSP Annual Convention. Zhao received a $5,000 grant for her research, “Bonding in a Heartbeat: Can Feeling Others’ Heartbeat Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?”

The runners-up include 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” and 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.” Both runner-up projects received $2,500.

Q&pAy 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). During the 15-minute interrogation, audience members were also given the chance to participate in this high-stakes Q&A.

About the Grants

This program provides small grants to individuals (or a team of two) that is intended to support a relatively inexpensive, well-powered study that may be submitted for publication and for presentation at a future SPSP convention.

Award recipients submit a report of the research to SPSP within six months of the completion of the study and, if the research is successful, are expected to submit it both for publication and for presentation at the SPSP convention.


The Society for Personality and Social Psychology promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. With more than 7,000 members, the Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world.