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Uncover the hidden drivers of human behaviour to better understand and serve your customers and strengthen the success of your asset, with the largest and most-awarded behavioural science team in the healthcare MR space- HRW Shift.
HRW Shift
Understanding the deeper motivations, thought patterns and biases influencing decision-making makes pharma strategy development much clearer.
HRW Shift, our team of behaviour change experts, shine a light on the hidden factors at play through the multidisciplinary and evidence-based lens of behavioural science â which can give you and your team that fresh âsparkâ in seeing how to tackle problems; promote your product; or understand your stakeholders.
Most importantly, we go beyond simply explaining to provide evidence-based recommendations on strategies and ânudgesâ to change behaviour in the face of your unique challenges. We take behavioural insights from the theoretical to the tangible: delivering measurable strategic change that shows up on the bottom line.
Market shaping and belief journey work
How to create opportunities for your brand by understanding habits, spheres of influence, and psychologies at play.
Understanding physicians on a deeper level
Including brand differentiation and brand image.
Patient work
Providing patients with the tools to optimize their health behaviours, adhere to their treatment regimen, understand the nuances of their conditions, and navigate the healthcare system.
Campaigns/Communications research
How to communicate in a compelling and resonant way by tailoring the content and visuals to your target audience.
Behaviour change challenges
Which nudges and behavioural change techniques are mostly like to help you achieve the desired HCP or patient behaviour.
Intervention confidence
Your most effective path of action to increase customer satisfaction, improve adherence, or boost revenues.
1. Research Design
Identifying possible behavioural elements and consulting on the most applicable methods
2. Kick-off Meeting
3. Fieldwork
Attending research to identify on psychological themes and guiding questioning/test hypothesized interventions
4. Analysis
5. Debrief
Consulting on validated behaviour change tactics and strategies to ânudgeâ customers along the ladder of behaviour change
Case-studies
When evaluating materials for a direct to patient/ consumer campaign, the most preferred concept had a positive emotional profile (dominated by âhopeâ), however it lacked a link to motivate uptake.
We identified his âhopefulâ tone as a hallmark of the optimism bias meaning this messaging could actually inhibit action.
The Optimism Bias: the tendency for people to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative outcome compared to others
Framing considerations â people react more strongly and emotionally to moments of loss rather than gain, if appropriate, messages that generate a sense of urgency yield greatest impact on behaviour.
Episodic future thinkingâ making your âfuture selfâ tangible helps overcome inclinations to procrastinate taking action
Result
Our client went against the concept customers âlikedâ the most and selected the recommended concepts from behavioural science. The campaign resulted in a 12% increase in people being screened.
A client was developing a new âparadigm changingâ oncology diagnostic that physicians described as âfuturisticâ and seemed to not fully understand.
HRW Shift identified the hallmarks of the âworldview backfire effectâ: in that itâs not really an issue of them not understanding the facts, but that the offering is challenging to their worldview and threatens some elements of their model of reality. If this occurs, instead of accepting the new information, there is a high risk that customers dig in their heels and reinforce their existing beliefs.
Our client commissioned HRW to map the COVID-19 stakeholder landscape to explore the needs for their asset in development.
We conducted online bulletin boards with key HCPs (to give flexibility to contribute to the research on their own schedule) and used behavioural science analysis to understand the cognitive mechanisms driving behaviour.
Although the focus of the research was very functional, the emotion of the ongoing pandemic was having a heavy toll on HCP perspectives. HRW Shift recognised this emotion as an important factor:
Brain regions involved with emotion and threat (amygdala) inhibit learning, memory, and complex decision-making ability.
The environment in which HCPs were forming their behaviours to manage this disease was having an impact on their abilities to perform their jobs.
The behavioral science lens allowed provide tangible ânudgesâ and tactics for our client to build their strategy for their asset, including:
Katy Irving
Rhiannon Connolly
Kiran Pawar
Jennifer Vos
Oliver Daysmith
Samyukta Kumar
Saket Rao
Tony Jiang
Kate Thornton
Tori Stiegman
Katy is the founder of HRW Shift. She has an MSc from the London School of Economics and is an active member of the London Behavioural Economics network. In addition to applying behavioural understanding on projects for clients, she attends and presents at global conferences about behavioural economics in pharma market research.
Rhiannon has a masterâs degree in Social Cognition, undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology and expertise in Neuro-Linguistic programming (NLP) and is ideally placed to consult and provide behavioural insights and support the core project team by paying close attention to language-based clues to shed further light on cognitive biases and heuristics.
Kiran has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a masterâs degree in health psychology, including key constructs of the HCP/Patient relationship. She joined HRW after completing her masterâs degree and consults regularly as a core part of the Shift team to ensure validated constructs in health psychology are applied.
Jen has a strong academic background in linguistics, psycholinguistics, and discourse analysis (psychology of language processing and cognition). She has experience investigating language patterns, styles (tense/style/framing) to extract a deeper understanding of perceptions, feelings, and concerns.
Oliver holds a Master's Degree in Behaviour Change and an undergraduate degree in Human Geography, both from UCL. He also draws on a diverse career â from facilitating behaviour change workshops to capturing customer voice â to deliver creative, evidence-based insights tailored to the business context and underlying social psychological processes.
Samyukta holds master's degrees in Clinical Psychology and Behavioural Science, reflecting her profound interest in the intersection of human behaviour and healthcare decisions. Her research background includes in-depth studies on the drivers of preventive health behaviors, with a notable focus on understanding the behavioral aspects of antibiotic consumption in the patient community. Eager to apply her expertise, Samyukta looks forward to contributing valuable insights as a member of the SHIFT team, leveraging her blend of psychology and behavioural science knowledge.
Intrigued by the intersection of human behaviour and decision-making, Saket graduated with an MSc (distinction) in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His fascination for human behaviour and health is evident in his dissertation, which focused on applying linguistic analysis to differentiate linguistic markers unique to suicide ideation. Skilled at behavioural diagnosis, research design, and quantitative research, Saket has applied behaviour science principles to solve complex behavioural challenges
Human decision-making is something which Tony finds fascinating, and he is amazed by how insights from behavioural science can make significant impacts on people's outcomes. Tony joined the Shift team, HRW's in-house behavioural science unit, in early 2022 after working for an applied behavioural science consultancy in Australia where he managed and supported projects in the healthcare, government, FMCG, finance and technology industries. Prior to this, he obtained a MSc (Distinction) in Behavioural Economics from the University of Nottingham, which is where his interest in behavioural science really solidified.
Kate joined HRW after working in the Behavioural Practice at a social research and advisory business in the UK. Here she managed and supported projects applying mixed methods research and behavioral insights to understand and influence behaviour and decision making across a range of public policy areas. Prior to this she pursued her interest in human behaviour through an MSc in Behaviour Change at University College London, and a BSc in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Manchester.
Tori graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 2025 with an MSc in Social Data Science after gaining her BA in Data Science and Psychology from Wellesley College in 2023. She is fascinated by the gap between what people say and what they do which she explored in her Master's thesis, revealing how healthcare treatment presentation shapes patient adoption. She's particularly interested in understanding behavioral barriers to healthcare interventions and how data-driven insights can inform better patient outcomes.
Blogs, News, and Insights
Episode 41, Part 2: Digging into Disinformation
If misinformation has always existed, why does it feel so much harder to spot today? In part two of our conversation,...
Episode 41: Digging into Disinformation
What can we trust in the age of AI and bite-sized content? With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the dom...
Episode 40: Does Parenting Change Our Brain?
From sleepless nights to endless cuddles, parenting feels transformative, but does parenting change our brains? In ou...
Episode 39: Behavioural Science FAQs
Curious about the inner workings of decision making? Wondering how Behavioural Science can transform your business? T...
Episode 38: Careers in Behavioural Science
Have you ever thought about pursuing a career in Behavioural Science? In our latest podcast, HRW Shift share their jo...
Behavioural Science FAQs
To close our 6th Annual Celebration of Behavioural Science webinar series, we handed the agenda over to our audience, yo...
The Paradox of Trust in AI: Why HCPs and Patients Both Over Trust and Under Trust
Can we trust AI to make better decisions, and can we trust ourselves to know when not to? HRW Shift told our audience...
Recall vs Recognition: Understanding How Memory Shapes Decisions
Drawing on behavioural science and real-world healthcare examples, this session explores how brands, messages, and exper...
Help Stakeholders See What You See: A Behavioural Science Approach to Data Visualisation
Catch up with HRW Shift for âHelp Stakeholders See What You See: A Behavioural Science Approach to Data Visualisationâ...
Digital Health for All? Understanding Inequity in Digital Health
This session explored why some groups are more likely to benefit from digital health solutions than others and when digi...
The Cognitive Biases That Make Large Language Models So Convincing
We put so much trust in LLMs, but do we know why? Imagine working with a colleague who is fast, confident, articulate...
Unravelling the Language: A Linguistic Exploration of Communication Patterns in ITP and wAIHA
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Unravelling the Language: A Linguistic Exploration of Communication Patterns in Rare Haematological Diseases
Between the Lines: A Thematic and Linguistic Analysis on Cognitive Impairments Associated with Bipolar Disorder
Cognitive impairment associated with bipolar disorder exerts a profound and far-reaching impact. To explore the intricat...
Increasing Condom Use and STI Testing: Creating a Behaviourally Informed Sexual Healthcare Campaign
Getting people to engage in preventative sexual health behaviours (condom use, STI testing) is always a challenge. Last ...
Behaviour Change Techniques from The Other Side of Change: Lessons for Healthcare Marketers & Insight Teams
While reading The Other Side of Change as part of HRW Shiftâs Summer Book Club, I was struck by how many of the storie...
Mental Health at Work: Why We Struggle to Prioritise Our Mental Wellbeing
Every year, World Mental Health Day reminds us of the importance of looking after our mental health and wellbeing.We hea...
What the Peak-End Rule Can Teach Us About Patient Experience in Healthcare
Why do some experiences stay with us long after they've ended, while others quickly fade from memory? Imagine walking th...
What Your Smartwatch Reveals About Human Behaviour: Patient Engagement
Millions of people wear smartwatches to track their health, fitness and wellbeing. Yet their greatest success may have l...
The Missing Step in Healthcare Marketing: Why Behavioural Diagnosis Is So Important
"We need to improve the messaging." It's a common response when healthcare campaigns fail to generate the outcomes e...
âConverted the sceptics. The behavioural science gave a completely fresh view of the market. We loved it!â
Global Insights Director    Â
âThis is the most exciting research I’ve been on in my whole career.â
Senior Business Insights Lead  Â
âI religiously go back to the report. We’ve used [the behavioural science] language specifically to talk about why we need to change things, and it has given me confidence about our next steps.â
Director, Global Sales Excellence  Â
âThis is very high quality [behavioural science advice] and has enormous actionability. Genuinely might be one of the most actionable pieces I’ve seen.â
Market Research Manager Â
âBehavioural insights bring an additional dimension and scientific weight to findings… nobody can argue against the behavioural insightsâ
Global Strategic Insights Manager Â
â[the behavioural science] is really of out of the box thinking: fresh and new ideas, some quick wins and some for longer term. It’s valuable and useful.â
Global Brand Lead
âThese are the most tangible recommendation I’ve ever seen from a market research partner.â
Global Insights of Flagship Brand
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