چکیده (انگلیسی):

Despite the historical importance of translational research to social psychological investigations of social justice issues, the
culture and incentives of contemporary social psychology are ambivalent towards non-experimental field research. This
ambivalence poses a significant impediment to social psychology’s role in societal change. This paper offers a brief history of
how the field evolved from a relative emphasis on translating social psychology from the laboratory to the field (and back) to
the present moment. In doing so, we enumerate the most significant impediments to contemporary translational social
psychology , namely that conducting translational research often involves greater cost, greater difficulty advancing psychological
theory , and more time navigating logistics compared with basic laboratory research. Finally , using the example of recent
multi-investigator research on race and gender equity in policing, we outline emerging strategies for how to conduct translational
research amidst contemporary impediments, and offer modest suggestions for how the field can better facilitate this kind of
research in the future. T aken together this review offers a set of theoretical and practical suggestions for easing the path from
research to societal change.