H. Colleen Sinclair, PhD

Professor of Research

Contact
csinclair@lsu.edu

Education
Bachelor's Degree: Psychology, English & Women's Studies, University of Chicago
PhD: Social Psychology, University of Minnesota. Minors in Interpersonal Relations, Law & Quantitative Methods.

Photo of Colleen Sinclair

Dr. Sinclair is a social-forensic psychologist who studies a broad array of social issues. Having started in interpersonal violence research, investigating the means to understand and prevent violence between individuals and groups is a lifelong pursuit. Using research to inform action, whether on matters of crime, education, corrections, mental health, information warfare, or interpersonal relations, is her mission. She leads the Action Research Collaboratory, a learning lab for undergraduate RAs who are also interested in becoming future changemakers.

Study Design
Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research
Mixed Methods Data Analysis
AI Methods for Social Sciences
Public Speaking
Writing (Grant, Scientific, Public-facing)
Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Gates Foundation: R+D partnership for math equity. Co-Principal Investigator, 2022-2026, $3.5 million. Dr. Sinclair and the SREC team worked with the East Baton Rouge school district and Discovery Ed to examine ways to improve middle school students' math outcomes and close gaps on state tests. Dr. Sinclair & team developed the Math Mind Measures as part of this grant to assess student motivations. https://repository.lsu.edu/srec_reports/16/

U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center: Providing Actionable Intelligence to Increase the Capabilities of the Warfighter. Co-Principal Investigator, 2020-2026, $13 million. Dr. Sinclair worked with an interdisciplinary group of scholars and the military to identify ways to exploit open-source intelligence to detect threats to the military.

National Institute of Justice: When does rejection trigger aggression? A multi-method examination of a multimotive model. Principal Investigator, 2015-2019, $1.6 million. Dr. Sinclair examined the mediating factors that predicted whether an individual experiencing aggression in high school was likely to choose prosocial, asocial, or antisocial responses.

Robison, S., Sinclair, H. C., Burns, A. R., Yevuyibor, J. T., Thakkar, S., & Little, K. (2026). Stories of resilience and vulnerability: A qualitative study of the challenges and successes of community coalitions addressing underage drinking in Louisiana during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Use. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/29973368.2026.2718717 

Felmlee, D. & Sinclair, H. C. (2026). Social networks and personal relationships. Invited chapter for A. Vangelisti, D. Perlman, & S. Sprecher (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships. London, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Sinclair, H. C., Nelson, S., Ziogas, I., Stubbs-Richardson, M, Burns, A. R., & May, D. C. (2025).

What’s the chatter? Development and testing of the theory-grounded psycholinguistic threat assessment for the analysis of online extremist content. Justice Quarterly, available online first: https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2025.2485265 

Sinclair, H. C., Burns, A. R., & Burton, B. (2024). Taking conspiracies to extremes: How extremist groups use conspiracies to stoke violence. Invited chapter for L. Ritter (Ed.) American Conspiracism, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge Press. 

Utley, J. W., Sinclair, H. C., Nelson, S., Stubbs-Richardson, M., & Ellithorpe, C. E. (2021). Behavioral and psychological consequences of identity-based bullying in high school. Self & Identity, 21(1), 61-85. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15298868.2021.1920049

Stubbs-Richardon, M., Sinclair, H. C., Porter, B., & Utley, J. W. (2021). When does rejection trigger aggression? A test of the Multimotive model. Frontiers in Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660973

Ellis, A., Sinclair, H. C., Wood, N., Burns, A. Pho, A. K., & Wallin, M. (2026). I hate you more: Comparing levels of antagonistic affect and self- vs. other- dehumanization in the online chatter of incels. Presentation presented at the Psychology of Extremism preconference at the Society of Personality and Social Psychology conference, Chicago, IL.

Sinclair, H. C., Rhodes, J., Kim, Y. K., & Terrio, S. (2025). Updating the Math Mind: New developments in the measurement of youth motivation in math. Paper presentation for the Gates Convening, June 4th, San Francisco, CA.

Pasipanki, B., Ginn, S., Sinclair, H. C., Pho, A. K., & Wallin, M. (2025). Searching for danger in Incel chatter: A theory-grounded analysis of posts from different authors in the Incel subreddit. Poster presented at the Society of Personality and Social Psychology conference, Denver, CO. Also presented at the LSU Discover Day.

Yang, X., Amour, N., & Sinclair, H. C. (2025). Fake news, real consequences? An examination of the effects of disinformation about global events on prejudice in four countries. Poster presented at the Society of Personality and Social Psychology conference, Denver, CO.

Sinclair, H. C. (2024). Dissecting disinformation. Invited presentation for the Center for Trust in Health and Science, December 17th.

Sinclair, H. C. & Bainbridge, K. (2024). Building belonging: A workshop to redefine and reflect on what it means to belong in math. Workshop presentation at the Gates Foundation AIMS Collaboratory Convening, New York, NY, December 5th, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C. (2024). Defending against disinformation in daily life. Panel presentation to the Cecil College Conversations, Election 2024: Searching for “Truth” in a Partisan Digital Landscape, Online, October 3rd, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C. (2024). Open science: Practices, problems, and promises. Panel presentation at the Gates Foundation AIMS Collaboratory Convening, Los Angeles, CA, June 6th, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C. (2024). Math minded. Panel presentation at the Gates Foundation AIMS Collaboratory Convening, Los Angeles, CA, June 5th, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C., Burns, A. R., & Burton, B.* (2024). Taking conspiracies to extremes. Invited presentation for the University of Cardiff Security, Crime, and Intelligence Innovation Institute. Cardiff, Wales, April 9th, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C., Utley, J. W., Armour, N. A. & Spears, A. (2024). The nature of disinformation. Invited presentation for the University of Cardiff Security, Crime, and Intelligence Innovation Institute. Cardiff, Wales, April 9th, 2024.

Sinclair, H. C. (2024). Disinformation in daily life. Invited presentation for the Royal Military College Information Warfare Symposium on “Detecting and countering Russian psychological warfare.” Online, March 27th, 2024.

Wicks, S. & Sinclair, H. C. (2023). Refining the Enemy Impact Inventory: Integrating Ostracism Detection Theory to better understand the impact of enemies. Poster presented at the International Conference for Psychological Science, Brussels, Belgium, March 9th, 2023

Dean, M. C. & Sinclair, H. C. (2022). What’s the chatter? Development and testing of the theory-grounded threat assessment for the analysis of online extremist chatter. Paper presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference, Psychology of Extremism preconference, San Francisco, CA.

Selected for the Franklin Covey Rising Leaders Program, 2026-2027

Selected for Stanford’s Summer Institute on AI Methods for Social Scientists, 2026 (1 of 20 out of 300+ applicants)

Nominated and Elected as a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, 2025

Participated in the Olga Lenyel Institute of Holocaust Studies summer training program, a competitive application process, 2019

Selected for the MSU Office of the Vice President for Research Faculty Leadership program, 2012-2013.

MSU State Pride Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievements recipient, 2011

MSU College of Arts and Sciences Researcher of the Month, October 2010.

Oldham Outstanding Mentorship Award, 2010.

MSU Most Influential Professor Award, 2010.

MSU Student Association College of Arts and Sciences Professor Recognition Award, 2010.

Dr. Sinclair is a New Zealand-American, wife, mother (to humans and pets), sister, and daughter, as well as a third-generation educator. She loves creative writing, photography, and cause-focused volunteering.