A while ago I announced I wanted to run a different interview series next to me already established “Experts in Behavioural Science” series. What I wanted to run was more future oriented. I wanted to showcase the opinions and voices of the future experts in behavioural science. So here they are: My Next Gen. This series will come out on a weekly basis, spanning around 10 articles, covering 20 questions. We will dive into skillsets, backgrounds, ambitions, perceptions of the field as a whole, its most impressive aspects and its limitations. Ultimately, I want to see what the next generation has in store for us. So let me introduce the Next Gen:
Flora Finamor Pfeifer Our first Next Gen participant is Flora, from Brazil. She is a behavioural scientist at São Paulo City Hall, with the Innovation and Technology Department. Her work focuses predominantly on the behavioral public policy area. But she has also worked with finance, urban, and health-related challenges so far. Her main interest focuses on preventive health behaviors. Her experience with behavioural science so far already started in her undergraduate degree: “I have been passionate about Behavioral Science since my undergraduate studies. Back then, I have created an independent Behavioral Economics Study Group, which I still organize until these days, and I have written my bachelor thesis on “the history of behavioral economics”. I am currently pursuing a master degree in Public Administration. I plan to conduct my research on a randomized evaluation of a public policy behavioral intervention to combat dengue fever.”
Social media: Twitter: @FinamorFlora
Rebecca Amo Next up is Rebecca from Kenya! She is currently an Executive MSc. Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science and her previous experience in behavioural science comes from working in Human Capital Management for the Busara Center for Behavioural Economics for the past two years.
In addition, Rebecca is a restaurant owner and during this COVID-19 window, she focuses on customers behaviour change and adherence to the health protocol in view of disease spread reduction. Social media: linkedin.com/in/rebecca-amo
Robert Haisfield Rob is our first American based interviewee. He is currently an independent Behavioral Product Strategy and Gamification Consultant, as well as a Behavioral Product Strategist for Spark Wave. His experience with behavioural science goes back to college: “In college, I created a major in Behavioral Economics at UNC Chapel Hill because no such major existed. In the summer of 2016, I worked as a research assistant at the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Since graduating, I have worked with 13 different companies to use behavioral science principles in their product design as an independent consultant running Influence Insights and as a behavioral product strategist for Spark Wave.” Social media: twitter @roberthaisfield.
Sarah Bowen Up next is close friend Sarah, who lives in the UK, predominantly in Nottingham where she does her PhD in behavioural economics. Fun fact, Sarah is my co-host for our behavioural science podcast (Questioning Behaviour), which she manages next to doing a policy internship with Public Health England’s Behavioural Insights team.
Sarah’s experience with behavioural science started through her education: “Behavioural science makes economics far more interesting. As soon as I started really learning about behavioural science, I realized I had been living it my entire life – the only difference is that now I have cool names for all the weird and normal things I see others and myself do. All jokes aside, I love puzzles, and behavioural science has essentially become a codex I can use to crack the code on human behaviour (and offer one perspective on a potential explanation).” Social media: twitter @srhbwn
Gabriella Stuart Gabriella is our first Northern European representative as she is from Sweden! She currently working as a behavioural strategist at PBM Sweden, after having completed her degrees in Behavioural Sciences (BSc.), Sociology (MSc) and Behaviour Change (MSc). Her work focuses predominantly on behavioural change in the public sector. Gabriella’s interest in behavioural science started early: “In high school I became increasingly interested in psychology and how human behaviour lies at the core of most (if not all) of the many challenges humanity faces today. I knew that I wanted to learn more about how behaviour can be influenced in order to solve these challenges.” Social media: linkedin.com/in/gabriella-stuart-948b76178/
Garrett Meccariello Garret is also a behavioural economist within the US, just like Robert. He entered the behavioural science scene three years ago, and says it’s been a whirlwind since. “{When I graduated from my Master’s program at Penn, companies weren’t hiring Behavioral Scientists without a Ph.D. or without several years of experience (ironic, right? It was a new and growing field!).” Garrett’s work focuses on digital product design, innovation, and experience optimization in the insurance industry. A little bit of UX, a little bit of architecting digital interventions, and a lot of experimentation. Social media: http://www.garrettmeccariello.com/
Kathryn Ambroze Katrhyn is our second representative of the USA. She’s currently working with HCD Research as the Manager of Behavioral and Marketing Sciences. This fall, I will also be attending the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters for Behavioral and Decision Science (MBDS). She likes to think of herself as a hybrid: being in both academia and industry. Her experience with behavioural science so far is research based: “My undergraduate research included participation in two labs, both focusing on human behavior from different lenses. Following graduation, I joined the HCD team as a Behavioral Scientist where I’ve been for the past two years. My role focuses on methodological development and innovation by applying neuroscience and psychological tools to consumer and market research.” Social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynambroze/
Peter Judodihardjo Peter is another friend of mine, who has just finished his undergraduate degree in Psychology, and is now moving on to doing the MSc in Behavioural and Economic Science at Warwick University. We met in the Warwick Behavioural Insights Team, of which he has been the leader of the Engagement Team. In addition to this, he is also a Behavioural Science YouTuber. He started his channel to teach others: “I teach what I know about behavioural science. I like to explore lots of different topics, marketing, health, finance, social change etc. Behavioural Science is extremely broad, which is why I never seem to able to learn enough.” Social media: youtube/PetesBITs
Natasha Oza
Natasha is 24 years old and from India, where she works as a Learning Experience and Curriculum Architect. She’s working in the industry, where all her experience is grounded as well: “So far, my experience with behavioural science has been in the industry and entirely application-based. I have been focused on leveraging new and age-old techniques for learning and engagement both offline and online.” Natasha is currently working in online adult education (ed-tech). Specifically, She’s looking at enhancing workplace-readiness in lower-middle-income youth. Social media: linkedin.com/in/natasha-oza/
Sofia Maradiaga Sofia is originally from Honduras, but now residing in the UK. She is a Trade Marketing Executive in BAT for Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa, and also an independent Marketing & Behavioural Science consultant.
Her experience with behavioural science focuses on consumer behaviour research using biometric research methods such as eye tracking, EEG, and facial expression analysis. She has also undertaken a behavioural science research project to study Messenger Effects in the context of COVID-19. Sofia and I met as she studied the MSc Behavioural and Economic Science at Warwick, which she has now completed. Social media: linkedin.com/in/smaradiaga20/
So this is my “Next Gen”! From this article onwards, there’ll be another eight articles, all centering around one question or one topic. For those of you that don’t deal well with ambiguity, these are the topics:
- Why did you get into behavioural science?
- How are you applying behavioural science?
- What is your ambition within behavioural science?
- What skills do you need to be a good behavioural scientist?
- What are the most impressive developments in behavioural science?
- How can we improve behavioural science?
- What is the future of behavioural science?
