Search

"I thought, if these people are saying they can go to these places, maybe I can too." -- Lawrence Williams

"It's on-the-ground, in-depth research with a very qualitative component." --Olivia Salcido

Here are six examples of behavioral scientists who have stepped off the academic path into some interesting territory.

This is the first time researchers have been able to connect brain activity with a real-life consumer decision.

"Trying to get tenure in that department, I perceived, was going to be a battle." --Dawn Del Carlo.

Decision scientists may be mathematicians, statisticians, economists, philosophers, management theorists, or psychologists.

Jennifer Zimbroff (pictured above) wanted to understand why qualified high school students, especially minority students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, fail to take advantage of the college opportunities that are available to them.

“Biocultural anthropologists are physical anthropologists that are committed to determining the facts of peoples’ lives by integrating biological and cultural data
.”--Rachel Watkins

"I think that looking at the observable effects of diversity on a group’s performance is a really fruitful way to get a sense of what diversity really means." --Samuel R. Sommers

"Students interested in political science might try volunteering at local political campaigns, nongovernmental organizations, citizen advocacy groups, and interest groups." --Charles Taber

Like other social psychologists, Clinton-Sherrod is an expert in human social behavior and on how culture affects behavior in social systems.

"He said I could go back to school, or I could be a missionary and translate the bible into foreign languages. So I went to school." --Jessica Maye

Systematic studies of these networks and their behaviors can provide rewarding careers in the academic world, government, and industry.

Making decisions better and faster is a goal found across the spectrum of disciplines …

"In school, I expanded my own mind. Now I expand other people's minds through the work that we do every day."

[L]inguistics has recently become a field that has funds to recruit linguists of color.

"This is a great time to be an economist. Interesting, socially relevant, and empirically grounded research is now widely appreciated in the discipline." --Christina Fong

Because policymakers often are unfamiliar with the environmental science involved, a decision analyst serves as a conduit to translate the data into a useful framework.

Psychologists share tips for figuring out what's sapping your enthusiasm—and how to get it back.