Hiring a Behavioral Scientist

How do you start a new pattern of behavior? Sarah Watters wants you to build a snowball. Sarah is a Senior Consultant and Behavioral Scientist at Wellth, a health tech company focused on driving healthy behaviors among complex, chronically ill, individuals. Since joining Wellth in 2021, Sarah has designed foundational behavioral science strategies and frameworks that have resulted in significant reductions in avoidable inpatient care and high cost utilization among Wellth members. She received her MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics, where her research focused on how individuals make trade-offs in health-related treatment decisions when it comes to quality and duration through a behavioral science lens.

In this episode, Erik interviews top researchers on the topic of social trust and coordination live from the 2022 Norms and Behavioral Change Conference (NoBeC) at the University of Pennsylvania.  Erik interviews two speakers from the conference about their research on social trust and coordination:  Salma Mousa - Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University studying migration, conflict, and social cohesion. Interview begins at the 1:30 mark of the episode. Rachel Kranton -  James B. Duke Professor of Economics at Duke University studying how institutions and social settings affect economic outcomes. Interview begins at the 20:20 mark of the episode. This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Norms and Behavioral Change Conference (NoBeC) organized by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics. 

In this episode, Erik and Zarak discuss how to hire a behavioral scientist with a panel of BeSci practitioners and experts.   Zarak facilitates the discussion with the panel members:  Kathryn Ambroze - Manager of Behavioral and Marketing Sciences at HCD Research. Alli Wishner -  Behavioral Analytics Consultant at Deloitte.  Shoshana Davidson - Principal Advisor of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Behavioral Insights Team, with expertise on the BeApplied platform and BIT's research on improving hiring practices. Erik Johnson - your usual AD Radio co-host.  This episode is brought to you in partnership wtih HCD Research, a market research firm that specializes in the integration of traditional, psychological, behavioral, & neuroscientific tools to better understand consumers.  The conversation was recorded as a panel discussion for their NeuroU Conference, an online educational symposium to educate and celebrate the latest methodologies, technologies, and innovations in consumer research.

Shanta Ricks takes over the podcast as a special guest host for this episode to share her research on the psychology of Black hair. While receiving her masters in psychology from North Carolina Central University, Shanta focused her thesis on researching the role of hair on Black American self-esteem and how factors such as racial identity and racial socialization impacts this relationship. Shanta is a behavioral scientist at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, where her research explores what factors play a role in racial health and financial inequity. 

We’re back! In our first episode after a summer break, Erik is joined by previous guest Laurel Newman to flip the tables and interview Zarak on how he applies behavioral science to the field of organizational innovation. Aside from being co-host of this podcast, Zarak is a Senior Manager in Edward Jones' Firm Strategy Enablement Office, as well as a Senior Behavioral Researcher at Dan Ariely's Center for Advanced Hindsight. He also teach an applied behavioral science consulting course to graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the Board of Action Design Network Our conversation builds on his chapter for the book “Building Behavioral Science in an Organization,” which was edited by himself and Laurel Newman and published by Action Design Press with support from the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program. In the episode, you’ll hear Zarak’s expertise on topics like the behavioral and structural barriers to innovation and processes to increase innovative work in organizations.

Zarak and Erik chat with Allison White, a senior behavioral researcher at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight. Allison primarily advises FinTech companies on how to improve the design of their products to improve financial wellbeing for their users. Previously she was a senior UX design strategist at Deloitte’s InsightStudio, and is also a regular guest speaker at U Penn’s Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program. Allison recently published with Habit Weekly a case study on her specialty of behavior mapping: https://www.habitweekly.com/behavioral-mapping-pro   Today Allison joins the podcast to dive into the various aspects of behavior mapping, including its nuances from journey mapping. Other topics include structural vs. psychological barriers, the importance of focusing on pain points, and what applied behavioral scientists can learn from the methodologies in other fields of human-centered design. According to Allison, one of the main advantages of behavior mapping is it forces you to incorporate a deeper level of specificity in your desired outcome, as well as the subsequent behaviors needed to reach that outcome.

Episode Description: Today's guest is Kristen Berman, co-founder of Duke University's Common Cents Lab, as well as co-founder (with Dan Ariely) of Irrational Labs. Kristen was on the founding team for the behavioral economics group at Google and has spoken at Facebook, Fidelity, Equifax, Stanford, and many more. Erik and Zarak chat with Kristen about her philosophy of incorporating behavioral science into the Product Manager's domain, creating what she dubs the Behavioral Product Manager. Kristen outlines how behavioral science gives us the missing pieces of the Product Manager's toolkit.      Producer’s Note: This interview with our guest Kristen Berman and our hosts Zarak Kahn and Erik Johnson originally took place in 2018. In 2021, Kristen wrote a chapter for the book “Building Behavioral Science in an Organization,” which was edited by Zarak Khan and Laurel Newman, and published through Action Design Press with assistance from U Penn’s Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program. Kristen’s chapter in that book centers around the same topic as this interview: How behavioral science could and should be applied to Product Management. With the book release last year, we felt it was a great opportunity to reprise this fascinating interview, and generate some further discussion about this topic.

Happy 2022, Action Designers! In our first episode of the year, Zarak and Erik are joined by Namika Sagara to discuss her journey from academia to behavioral science practitioner, and how she applies BeSci to the field of consumer and market research.   Namika has a Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior and Judgment and Decision Making, founded the Behavioral Science Center for Ipsos in North America, and is currently the Chief Behavioral Officer for Syntoniq Inc., a behavioral insights consultancy and research firm. She is a prolific speaker and writer, including a chapter on Consumer and Market Research for the book “Building Behavioral Science in an Organization,” which was edited by Laurel Newman and our very own Zarak Khan, and published by Action Design Press with support from the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program.   Dive into this first episode of 2022 to hear Namika’s expertise on topics like focusing on how consumers actually think and behave in the real world, as well as the struggles and techniques to simulate real-life behavior in a market research and development environment. She also has tips for aspiring BeSci practitioners on the importance of support from organizational leadership.

It is our pleasure to welcome back Linnea Gandhi to the podcast! Linnea manages the boutique consulting firm BehavioralSight; develops and teaches applied behavioral science courses at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business; is pursuing her Ph.D. at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and lately has been keeping busy with helping to edit and organize the newly published book, “Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,” written by renowned behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein. She also loves her puppies, and your puppies too.   In today’s episode, Erik and Zarak explore with Linnea the differences between bias and noise, as well as the difficulty in designing behavioral interventions that are easy, relatable, and impactful. A lack of psychological safety in corporate culture makes it difficult to even find error and failure in companies, let alone try to improve them. The reason is because professionals (and people in general) are programmed to provide solutions. We’re rewarded for fixing things, or making them better – not so much for pointing out glaring errors that no one has noticed if we don’t have a ready-made answer for how to solve them.   How to address this gap, you ask? Well, you might start with a “noise audit.” Tune in and find out how to get started! Or sign up for her new online class on the subject at https://www.behavioralsight.com/online-learning.

Jon Levy is a behavioral scientist best known for his work in influence, human connection, and decision making. He specializes in applying the latest research to transform the way companies (from Fortune 500 brands to startups) approach marketing, sales, consumer engagement, and culture.   Jon joins Zarak and Erik to discuss his most recent book published just last week, “You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence.” In their interview they cover the origins of The Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience Jon founded over a decade ago that brings together industry leaders from Nobel laureates, Olympians, celebrities, executives, and overall “interesting people.” Jon was able to apply his understanding of the mechanics of human behavior (such as how people hate networking, but love making friends) to cultivate experiences rooted in emotional concepts like generosity and novelty. The results are events that are more remarkable and meaningful to those involved.   Other topics include the contagiousness of the behaviors of people we surround ourselves with, the connection between social integration and long life, and how to harness the IKEA effect to create a sense of belonging for people without spending big bucks.