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 — which can give you and your team that fresh “spark” 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 “nudges” 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 ‘nudge’ 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 ‘hope’), however it lacked a link to motivate uptake.
We identified his ‘hopeful’ 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 – 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 thinking– making your ‘future self’ tangible helps overcome inclinations to procrastinate taking action
Result
Our client went against the concept customers ‘liked’ 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 ‘paradigm changing’ oncology diagnostic that physicians described as ‘futuristic’ and seemed to not fully understand.
HRW Shift identified the hallmarks of the ‘worldview backfire effect’: in that it’s 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 ‘nudges’ and tactics for our client to build their strategy for their asset, including:
Katy Irving
Rhiannon Phillips
Kiran Pawar
Jennifer Vos
Alexandra Petrache
Jeremy Koloski
Oliver Day
Nina Zeiske
Dana Al-Juburi
Peter Tompkins
Rory Mitchell
Millie Morgan
Tony Jiang
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 master’s 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 master’s degree in health psychology, including key constructs of the HCP/Patient relationship. She joined HRW after completing her master’s 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.
Alexandra has a PhD in Neuroscience from UCL School of Pharmacy and is pursuing her fascination with the human mind by using deep analysis skills, critical thinking, and experience in research communication to put behaviour under the microscope. She comes from a multi-disciplinary background, with knowledge of genetics and neurodegenerative conditions.
With a BA in computer science and an MSc in behavioural economics, Jeremy straddles the clear-cut, algorithmic sphere of technology and the murky, shifting terrain of behavioural science. Thinking across traditional academic partitions is Jeremy’s forte—he therefore enjoys injecting concepts from a wide range of disciplines into his work.
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 – from facilitating behaviour change workshops to capturing customer voice – to deliver creative, evidence-based insights tailored to the business context and underlying social psychological processes.
With an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master's degree in health psychology, Nina has always shown a very strong interest in understanding the reasons behind certain behaviours and what drives behaviour change. Nina supports the Shift team with applying these concepts within our research.
Studying an interdisciplinary degree in Human Sciences, which spanned psychology and anthropology, instilled a curiosity in Dana for human behaviour in a healthcare context. Dana extended this interest to her dissertation on vaccine hesitancy in a COVID-19 climate, to look at humans’ relationship with uncertainty and trust, and how science communication can leverage these biases to shift mindsets and improve vaccine uptake. As part of the HRW Shift team, she is particularly interested in the underpinnings of human wants, fears, needs, and ultimately, choices.
Peter has always had a keen interest in behaviour and the influence of attitudes and perceptions. He gained his Master's degree in Sport Psychology; spanning his studies from the training of optimising performance in pressure situations, to understanding human behaviour in a range of preformance-based contexts. Peter continues to apply the behavioural-science concepts within research and as a part-time member of the SHIFT team.
Rory developed a passion for behavioral science while studying Biological Psychology and Biological Basis of Behaviour during his degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter. After graduating, he worked at a research agency called Mindlab where he gained experience in uncovering the unconscious drivers behind consumer decisions. During a project into consumer perceptions of plant-based foods, Rory was introduced to "Nudge" psychology and became fascinated with the topic. When the pandemic hit, Rory took a job at the Jersey Recovery College, a mental health charity. Here, he used his knowledge of behavioral science to design and deliver courses for the community on mental health habits such as running, keeping a gratitude diary, and meditating. At HRW, Rory continues to apply his expertise in behavioral science as a researcher and part-time member of the Shift team.
Millie has a bachelor's degree in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge and a master's degree in Psychological Sciences from University College London. She has experience in applied discourse analysis as well as natural language processing used to access implicit and explicit attitudes, and is particularly interested in the way social media can provide insights into the behaviour of the masses.
Tony has a Master’s degree in Behavioral Economics from the University of Nottingham and a bachelor’s in Economics. He is fascinated about understanding the how and why behind decision-making, and applies this knowledge to the unique challenges of the healthcare industry. Prior to joining HRW, he worked for behavioral science consultancies in Europe and Australia, conducting research and developing solutions for clients in finance, technology, and government.
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“Converted the sceptics. The behavioural science gave a completely fresh view of the market. We loved it!”
Global Insights Director
“This is the most exciting research I’ve been on in my whole career.”
Senior Business Insights Lead
“I 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.”
Director, Global Sales Excellence
“This is very high quality [behavioural science advice] and has enormous actionability. Genuinely might be one of the most actionable pieces I’ve seen.”
Market Research Manager
“Behavioural insights bring an additional dimension and scientific weight to findings… nobody can argue against the behavioural insights”
Global Strategic Insights Manager
“[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.”
Global Brand Lead
“These are the most tangible recommendation I’ve ever seen from a market research partner.”
Global Insights of Flagship Brand
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