Creating startups through empathy & behavioural research: Dr. Rachel Carey
There’s one point that is particularly interesting, and perhaps some part of the solution to all of this, which is the growth of researchers and scientists moving out of academia. While that represents a risk of further fragmentation, it also, to me, represents the potential opportunity to tackle that. This world of applied behavioral science, while fragmented and disconnected and going through growing pains, also has the potential to represent a different kind of bridge-building opportunity.
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Intro
In this episode of The Decision Corner, Brooke sits down with Dr. Rachel Carey, chief scientist at Zinc. Zinc runs a venture-builder in London that is dedicated to supporting passionate entrepreneurs who are interested in launching ventures to solve the developed world’s most pressing challenges. Since 2017, Zinc has invested time and resources into projects as diverse and impactful as improving women’s mental health, increasing opportunities for people affected by globalization, and adding five high-quality years to later life. Dr. Carey leads a team of scientists on Zinc’s Research & Development team who work with entrepreneurs to narrow their problem focus, sift through research, network, experiment, and finally, build and test their solutions.
Having come from an academic background with a PhD in psychology, Dr. Carey has a wealth of knowledge about the differences between behavioral science academia and applied research, and is eager to share her experiences and ideas about how to bridge the two worlds. In today’s episode, she discusses these differences, as well as how behavioral science shows up in the world of entrepreneurship, and the need for certain elements of research culture – including public perception – to evolve. Some specific topics discussed include:
- The differences of applying and generating behavioral science in the academic versus startup worlds
- How these two worlds, particularly research and entrepreneurship, are bridged in practice
- How behavioral science projects and ventures are prioritized
- The risks of entrepreneurship, and the privilege required to take those risks
- Current public misconceptions regarding science and research, and how these misconceptions are shaped by a lack of public access and information
- The changing face of entrepreneurship, and the new potential garnered by including more diversity
- The trade-off between statistics and anecdotal evidence, and the motivating power of stories
