HRW Shift Podcast

From sleepless nights to endless cuddles, parenting feels transformative, but does parenting change our brain? In our latest HRW Shift podcast, Jeremy, Behavioural Scientist is joined by Rifah, who holds a degree in Neuroscience, as they dive into the fascinating neuroscience behind parenting. The pair explore how our brains adapt to caregiving, how the science of bonding rewires us emotionally, and what surprising insights the latest research is uncovering. Whether you're a parent, thinking about becoming one, or just curious about the human brain, this podcast is for you!

This month's podcast from HRW Shift revisits our 4th Annual Celebration of Behavioural Science webinar series, where we addressed your top behavioural science queries and offered your business FREE advice!

Have you ever thought about pursuing a career in Behavioural Science? In our latest podcast, HRW Shift share their journey into their careers, including what they look for in standout applicants, the lessons they've learnt along the way and what they might do differently to benefit their experience.

Many recognise how behavioural science enhances qualitative research through guiding interviews and questionnaires to uncover unconscious biases and underlying motivators. However, when it comes to quantitative studies, some remain uncertain about its role in interpreting the data. In HRW Shift's latest podcast, ‘Why Behavioral Science & Quantitative Research Are Perfect Partners,' Saket and Jeremy, both Behavioural scientists, join Nicola, Senior Director and Head of Quant Research, to explore how behavioural science can enrich every phase of quantitative research.

In the second segment of HRW Shift's podcast, ‘Antibiotic Resistance Communications', Jeremy, Behavioural Scientist, and Kate and Sam, Behavioural Science Analysts share the potential solutions HCPS, patients, and public initiatives can do to help curve the acceleration of AMR.

Episode 35: Antibiotic Resistance Communications by HRW Shift Behavioural Science Consultancy

Episode 34: Self Nudging by HRW Shift Behavioural Science Consultancy

In the final segment of our 3-part podcast series, Saket Rao, Behavioural Scientist, shares findings from his master's dissertation, focusing on suicidal ideation using linguistic analysis on the social media platform, Reddit. We hope you enjoy, from HRW Shift and HRW Eavesdrop!

As part of our 3rd Annual Celebration of Behavioral Science webinar series, HRW Shift, our team of award winning, in-house Behavioural scientists, dug into your burning questions, from how you can implement Behavioural science within your work, to strategies designed for specific biases.

During the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine, a significant amount of content circulated expressing skepticism about the reliability and trustworthiness of the available vaccines. As individuals, our tendency to be influenced by the actions and emotions of others becomes particularly pronounced when faced with uncertainties, which also extends to our perceptions of vaccines. In our HRW Shift‘s latest podcast, Alexandra Petrache, Senior Behavioural Science Analyst and Dana Al-Juburi, Research Manager, explore the impact of language in vaccine distribution and discuss strategies including leveraging social identity, incorporating personal anecdotes and stories to evoke emotions, and the benefits of transparency about limitations and uncertainties of the vaccines.

Harvard data shows that over the years, implicit bias against race, sexuality, age, and disability have all decreased. However, implicit bias against those who are overweight is the only group bias that has become more severe over time. It is plausible that exposure to more positive thin people and negative overweight people in society could be responsible for the strengthening of implicit anti-fat bias. Social media platforms are a key leader when it comes to the ‘thin ideal', with the prevalence of photo manipulation, and the pressure to confirm to beauty standards and present this as an online highlight. In HRW Shift's latest podcast, Alex, Senior Behavioural Science Analyst, Millie, Research Executive and cofounder of HRW Eavesdrop, our innovative social media listening offering that is soon to be launched, are joined by @Emma, who is currently training to be a psychotherapist, with a background in Behavioural Science (specifically discourse analysis), as they share part 2 of our 3-part podcast series surrounding social media and mental health, discussing social media's impact on the perfect body image, and how we can keep our biases in check. Recommended reading: -"What we don't talk about when we talk about fat" by Aubrey Gordon

The so-called reality or standards that social media continues to enforce is reshaping people's social norms and attitudes, leaving more and more people left with either very poor self-esteem, or with the motivation to reach those standards take on very physically and mentally unhealthy behaviours and attitudes. Join Alexandra Petrache, Senior Behavioural Science Analyst and Millie Morgan, Research Executive and cofounder of HRW Eavesdrop, our innovative social media listening offering, as they share part 1 of our 3-part podcast series surrounding the relationship between social media, mental health and the depiction around these social aspects online using linguistic analysis techniques. References: 1.What we don't talk about when we talk about fat by Aubrey Gordon 2. Barry, C. T., Sidoti, C. L., Briggs, S. M., Reiter, S. R., & Lindsey, R. A. (2017). Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. Journal of adolescence, 61, 1-11. 3. Tankovska, H. (2021). Number of monthly active Instagram users 2013-2018. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthlyactive-instagram-users/ 4. Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). # Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of adolescence, 51, 41-49. 5. Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(4), 206. 6. Muralidhara, S., & Paul, M. J. (2018). # Healthy selfies: exploration of health topics on Instagram. JMIR public health and surveillance, 4(2), e10150. 7. Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Hoffman, B., Hanmer, J., & Primack, B. A. (2016). The association between social media use and eating concerns among US young adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(9), 1465-1472. 8. Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2005). I'm, like, SO fat!: helping your teen make healthy choices about eating and exercise in a weight-obsessed world. Guilford Press.

You know that moment when you think you might be releasing a podcast in March, but you postpone the recording once, twice...and a few more times, so it actually gets released in April? We do! Guilty! Have a listen of our podcast to see what Agatha Christie, wills, and wine subscription may have in common (or may be tenuously stretched to have something in common). Find out why we may procrastinate and quick tips on how to avoid procrastination

We are happy to present part two of our series exploring the common biases that HCPs and patients face! In our latest we explored some of the biases that often crop up in HCP research and strategies to counter them. Today we'll be discussing the biases that we repeatedly encounter in patient research and how to best respond to them. Tune in as our behavioral scientists help elucidate the patient experience and run through biases such as emotional overload, learned helplessness, illusion of transparency, and many more!

At HRW we do a lot of HCP research and as HCPs are affected by cognitive biases like all of us, we're put together this bite-sized podcast to explore biases that come up in HCP research and how they can be explored in market research and overcome. This is part of a two-episode short series- join us in the New Year for the podcast where we discuss common biases that we've encountered in patient research!

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours". Standard economics considers individuals selfish, but behavioural economics explains that reciprocity (returning someone's actions)is an evolutionarily ingrained concept, which we see at play every day: have you ever bought or considered buying a product when someone offered you a sample? Have you put more effort into a work-out because the trainer was nice? Join Tony Jiang, Behavioural Science Analyst, and Alexandra Petrache, Senior Behavioural Science Analyst, as they discuss reciprocity! *Note: on the podcast, we talked about a study which identified a correlation between doctors being offered meals from sales rep, with the apparent effect of an increase in the prescription of branded drugs. We'd like to note that transparency provisions are now in place to preclude this, as well as to forbid provisions of meals or any gifts from pharmaceutical companies

Would you like strawberry or blackberry jam? What about the percentage of fruit in the jam? Sweetener, sugar? What brand? Join us as we talk about choice overload- when "more" is not always "better", how it can affect our decision-making, where we've encountered it in the healthcare space, and what to do if you would like to ease it for your customers and give them a helping hand in making decisions

Which biases are under recognised in healthcare marketing or market research? Where do you stand on using facial coding, eye tracking and voice tonality recognition in your research? During our second Annual Celebration of Behavioural Science we answered your questions! Have a listen to see what the Shift team had to say and what biases they encounter in their work or personal lives!

Patient empowerment is more complex than just ramping up patient education- physicians, carers and the community are all important! To find out more and to look beyond traditional patient empowerment, listen to this interview with Emma Neville (MPhil History and Philosophy of Medicine and Behavioural Scientist at HRW)

How much does your current self help your future self? Do you often take actions to safeguard your financial future or develop beneficial habits? The degree to which we do it varies from individual to individual, but behavioural science can help us shed light on certain biases that we tend to be susceptible to and that can help dismantle the work that our current selves puts in for our future selves. That behaviour can even be hinted at by the language we use and it is extremely important to be mindful of when carrying our market research and asking the current selves of respondents questions about what the future holds Join Alex, Emma, David and Jeremy on a journey to discover why we don't always act in the best interest of our future selves and how we might be able to change that

Do you wear your lucky shoelaces when you go running? Have you witnessed how a basketball player is hailed as having a "hot hand" where they just seem to be on a streak and keep on winning? The world of sports is full of behavioural biases at play and we can use them to illustrate what's at play in the healthcare world as well. Join Katy Irving, David Manshreck, Peter Tompkins and Alexandra Petrache, as they dissect the behavioural microcosm of sports

"Let's circle back", "think outside the box" and "push the envelope on this one". "Doctor, I'm feeling rotten". Idioms inundate our daily lives, even at work, in a business context, and they can be indicators of behavioural biases. In in this month's podcast we chat about what idioms can teach us, why it is important to acknowledge them in healthcare market research and what we do to make sure we avoid language misinterpretation that can affect interview analysis

If you were to show the number 3 on your fingers how would you do it? In "Inglorious Basterds", Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) gives himself away when ordering drinks by using the British hand gesture for the number 3 instead of the German gesture. Join Alex, Jen and Kiran in this podcast as we talk about various gestures around the world and their different interpretation and use. Perhaps you would like to share with us some interesting gestures you know of? If you would like to know more about gestures, why not read "The Book of Tells", by Peter Collett

Hi Everyone, Join us as we recommend some of the books we've read and enjoyed. The books revolve around psychology and sociology and we hope there is a flavour for everyone, with recommendations spanning fiction and real-life stories. Let us know what books you have enjoyed! The HRW Shift Team

In our second podcast on social media, we take a look on whether it is good or bad for us. Join Alexandra Petrache, behavioural science analyst, and Rhiannon Phillips, senior behavioural scientist, as they discuss findings from Rhiannon's Master's thesis titled "Meaningful Connection or Simply Connectivity? Facebook, Connection, Disconnection and Loneliness", chip in with answers from an in-house survey on what the social media experience means for people. Useful resources if you would like to find out more: -The effects of social media on teenagers: https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/well-being/effect-of-social-media-on-teenagers/ -Article on talking to strangers on the Chicago metro: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-influence/201705/4-social-norms-you-should-break -Instagram's testing of a "take a break" feature: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-tests-new-take-a-break-feature-to-encourage-users-to-limit-time/609854/ - Frances Haugen's opening testimonial remarks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLAb9mnFRvg

Our Shift team have set out to explore why do we spend our free time on seemingly mindless or unenriching activities instead of delving into what are known as "flow" activities. Join Katy Irving, Jeremy Koloski and Alexandra Petrache as they dissect this behaviour and present their go-to strategies for making the most of their time. Want to know more? If you enjoyed the podcast and want to know more about making the most of your free time, have a look at the resources below: Books: - "How to change" by Katy Milkman (read our article on it here) - "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - "Notes on a nervous planet"- by Matt Haig Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C74amJRp730 -Tristan Harris, American technology ethicist and former Google employee. Intro/outro music by Bensound

On episode 16 we ask the question, what is resilience? In an inspirational and moving podcast two members of the shift team, Rhiannon Phillips and Caitlin Reddiex share their personal stories of overcoming hardship and outline strategies for building resilience and how these helped them persevere through difficult times.  In the episode Caitlin and Rhiannon reference Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, read more here: https://www.bigissue.com/latest/sabrina-cohen-hatton-joins-the-big-issue-as-ambassador/#:~:text=Sabrina%20Cohen%2DHatton%20has%20joined,in%20this%20week's%20Big%20Issue. Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or tweet us at this link: twitter.com/HRWShift Music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

This month on the HRW Shift podcast, four members of the Shift team act as behavioural science Agony Aunts to your business questions! What do patient support offerings need to keep in mind? How can a challenge brand compete with a first-to-market product? Katy Irving, Allie Dautrich, Rhiannon Phillips and Emma Neville share their expertise on these challenges and more. This special episode was recorded on our annual Shift Webinar day - a Celebration of Behavioural Science. Don't miss out on the learnings of the day, you can follow this link to learn more: https://www.hrwhealthcare.com/blog/hrws-celebration-of-behavioural-science-2020/

It's been over a year since COVID reached our shores in the US and the UK and prompted a massive upheaval of our habits in nearly all aspects of our lives. In this podcast, four core members of our behavioural science team offer their personal reflections on the behaviour change challenges and successes of the last year. From mask-wearing to credibility politics, this has been a year of adjustment to new behaviours and new realities. Join Katy Irving, Allie Dautrich, Rhiannon Phillips and Emma Neville in taking a behavioural science lens to the last year of COVID-19. We'd love to hear more about your reflections and experiences so leave us a comment below or reach us on twitter at: https://twitter.com/hrwshift

Have you ever lost your keys or forgotten a friend's birthday? Then you are familiar with just how fallible memory can be- we are very prone to forgetting. Worse still, our memories can be distorted and manipulated by information we learn about after the memory is encoded. What does the unreliability of memory mean for research? Well, the stakes are never so high as during in criminal investigations. In this context, investigators use a technique called 'the cognitive interview' when questioning eye-witnesses, a technique designed improve the chances of accurate recall of information about a crime scene. Our in-house forensic psychology expert, Lea Couchman, tells us all about the cognitive interview process and draws out learnings for robust interviewing in market research contexts. Articles mentioned in the podcast : Fisher, R. P., & Geiselman, R. E. (1992). Memory-enhancing techniques for investigative interviewing: The cognitive interview. Charles C Thomas, Publisher. Memon, A., Meissner, C. A., & Fraser, J. (2010). The Cognitive Interview: A meta-analytic review and study space analysis of the past 25 years. Psychology, public policy, and law, 16(4), 340.

Human faces and voices are amongst the most information rich things our brains can process, giving us clues about who is communicating with us, what they are saying and how they are feeling. In this podcast, our in-house experts Lea Couchman and Iona Gillies tell us all about how our brains process and recognise faces and voices. If you're interested to hear more about some of the research mentioned in the podcast, check out these links.... Facial Overshadowing Effect in earwitness testimony: Cook, S., & Wilding, J. (2001). Earwitness testimony: Effects of exposure and attention on the Face Overshadowing Effect. British Journal of Psychology, 92(4), 617-629. Face recognition from yearbook: Bahrick, H. P., Bahrick, P. O., & Wittlinger, R. P. (1975). Fifty years of memory for names and faces: A cross-sectional approach. Journal of experimental psychology: General, 104(1), 54. Language Familiarity Effect: Thompson, C. P. (1987). A language effect in voice identification. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1(2), 121-131.

As health research progresses, we are learning more and more about risk factors for disease and how to prevent the onset of diseases before symptoms. But how useful is that information? In this edition of the HRW shift podcast, we explore the topic of dementia and ask ourselves the question: if you could take a test that told you whether you were going to get dementia, would you want to know? Many thanks to Allison Killen, whom we interviewed for this podcast, for lending your expertise and experience. In the podcast we reference a 2020 Lancet Commission report on dementia prevention and intervention. If you're interested to have a read of this report, you can find it at this link: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or tweet us at this link: https://twitter.com/HRWShift Music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

We use words all day long, but what do the words we use reveal? In this podcast, (featuring HRW Behavioural Analyst and former discourse analyst at the Cambridge institute of public health Emma Neville and linguist and cultural expert turned HRW Research Executive Jen Vos) we discuss the power of looking at the words people use through the approaches of linguistic and discourse analysis. Music by bensound.com

This edition of the HRW shift podcast explores the pros and cons of adapting to the COVID-19 'New Normal': an exploration of what it means to be 'normal', what's changed, and the benefits and drawbacks of these adaptations from a behavioural science perspective. On this episode, Katy, Kiran, Emma, and Rhiannon talk about these themes and their own experiences and invite you to consider the impact to the healthcare industry at large Image of maslow's heirarchy of needs available here: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html Follow HRW Shift on twitter at @hrwshift Title music from bensound.com

Technology seems like it offers nearly unlimited potential to support behaviour change. Healthcare companies have greater access to ways to reach patients and healthcare professionals and deliver real-time, personalised, and valuable information, tools, and support. But building and delivering digital interventions need to be designed to really stick: to entice users to participate, that's engaging, and that's designed to deliver behaviour change. In this podcast series, Katy Irving (Global Head of Behavioural science, HRW Shift) conducts interviews with a series of special guest experts at the intersection between technology and behaviour change In the 3rd and final episode in this series we feature Dr. Adam Palanica, a behavioural scientist from the digital agency Klick health to talk about incorporating behavioural science in the design of innovative digital technologies aimed at behaviour change and some of the ways that using behavioural science right from the beginning can make technological interventions more impactful for users. Title music from bensound.com

Digital technology seems like it offers nearly unlimited potential to support behaviour change. Healthcare companies have greater access to ways to reach patients and healthcare professionals and deliver real-time, personalised, and valuable information, tools, and support (apps, websites, simulations, devices). But building and delivering digital interventions need to be designed to really stick: to entice users to participate, that's engaging, and that's designed to deliver behaviour change. In this podcast series, Katy Irving (Global Head of Behavioural science, HRW Shift) conducts interviews with a series of special guest experts working on ideas at the intersection between technology and behaviour change. In the 2nd episode in this series, we're joined by Dr. Olga Perski. Olga is an award winning post-doctoral researcher at University College London (UCL), and excitingly, she has focused a lot of her academic work on the area of ‘engagement' including what constitutes engagement (the thing you do versus the thing you feel) and what type of engagement with digital interventions leads to user satisfaction and behaviour change. On the podcast she speaks about the academic evidence about what drives engagement (and some practical considerations for research) as well as some of her recently-published work using chatbots to help people quit smoking (link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2055207619880676) Podcast from HRW Shift - team of behavioural science experts within the healthcare market research agency HRW. Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

Digital technology seems like it offers nearly unlimited potential to support behaviour change. Healthcare companies have greater access to ways to reach patients and healthcare professionals and deliver real-time, personalised, and valuable information, tools, and support (apps, websites, simulations, devices). But building and delivering digital interventions need to be designed to really stick: to entice users to participate, that's engaging, and that's designed to deliver behaviour change. In this podcast series, Katy Irving (Global Head of Behavioural science, HRW Shift) conducts interviews with a series of special guest experts working on ideas at the intersection between technology and behaviour change. This edition features Jonathan Lovatt-Young, User Experience (UX) expert and author of 'The Oxytocin Organisation: building useful utilty through participation' https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/1686079494/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ed0LDb6MF4GDP - Jon talks to us about what User experience is, where it comes from, where it overlaps with thinking from behavioural science, and how to build interventions that attract users as true participants. Podcast from HRW Shift - team of behavioural science experts within the healthcare market research agency HRW. Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

The way options are presented can inadvertently steer people towards particular choices, which may be in contrast with their best intentions. The HRW shift team discuss the Nobel Prize-winning theme of 'choice architecture': how to align decision environments to help people make the best choices for their health. A discussion of how this psychological phenomena impacts those of us in healthcare and market research and how to avoid becoming bad choice architects. Podcast from HRW Shift - team of behavioural science experts within the healthcare market research agency HRW. Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

You lose some, you gain some: using 'loss aversion' in consumer advertising and implications of where to use loss/gain framing of messages for healthcare marketing Podcast from HRW Shift - team of behavioural science experts within the healthcare market research agency HRW. Show notes: Rejected 'Remain' brexit campaign ads: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/remain-campaign-ads-away/1400625 Loss aversion message examples: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/13-loss-aversion-marketing-strategies-to-increase-conversions/ Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

Psychology vs Behavioural Economics: Comparing 2 ways of understanding humans, the benefits/ drawbacks, and applications for market research Podcast from HRW Shift - team of behavioural science experts within the healthcare market research agency HRW. Show notes: Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

What's the problem with Linda: the systematic error ‘representativeness' and how to ensure this doesn't affect your research results Show notes: Follow up to our first podcast with news from Facebook: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/technology/facebook-cambridge-behavior-model.html EphMRA paper on proportions versus raw numbers: Page 57 https://www.ephmra.org/media/1001/ephmra-2017-post-conference-news-final-f.pdf Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound www.bensound.com/

The deep OCEAN: diving in to the ‘Big 5' and exploring how personality affects choices – applications for market research Show notes: Take the big 5 quiz and see your results here: https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test Virtue signalling talks from Geoffrey Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXjaJ6olWzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWlK8GvqdT0 Intro/outro music courtesy of Bensound https://www.bensound.com/