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About Us

The Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists (GAABS) is a global, not-for-profit professional association that connects behavioural science research with real-world practice. Members meet professional standards and demonstrate a commitment to ethical, evidence-based interventions. GAABS supports practitioners, researchers and organisations by promoting responsible application, recognising high-quality work with practical impact, championing cross-industry research and establishing standards that advance the field. Through collaboration and shared learning, GAABS helps behavioural science practitioners address real-world challenges and strengthen the discipline globally.

Why GAABS Exists

Applied behavioural science is transforming how organisations understand and influence decision-making, behaviour and culture. As the discipline continues to grow, so too does the need for professional standards, ethical practice and a global community that supports those applying behavioural science in the real world.

GAABS exists to help behavioural science practitioners solve real-world problems. We bring together practitioners, researchers, students and organisations to advance the profession through collaboration, shared learning and evidence-based practice.

We do this by:

Promoting high professional and ethical standards in the application of behavioural science.
Supporting the development of current and future behavioural science practitioners.
Connecting a global community to share knowledge, experience and best practice.
Facilitating research and collaboration that address real-world challenges.
Showcasing and celebrating outstanding examples of applied behavioural science.
Advancing the impact of behavioural science across sectors through education, events and professional engagement.

Our Goals

GAABS is committed to advancing the professional practice of applied behavioural science by:

Helping individuals and organisations identify trusted behavioural science practitioners, researchers and teams.
Promoting high professional standards, ethical practice and evidence-based approaches across the behavioural science community.
Strengthening the connection between research and real-world application by encouraging collaboration and the sharing of knowledge.
Supporting the responsible application of behavioural science with a strong commitment to ethics, transparency and positive societal impact.
Fostering a global community that enables practitioners, researchers, students and organisations to learn from one another and tackle real-world challenges together.
Protecting the integrity of the profession by encouraging professional conduct and maintaining confidence in the responsible application of behavioural science.

Meet the Team

Shelley Hoppe, Chair

Founder of SBC, a behavioural science change and communications consultancy. She is passionate about making behavioural science pragmatic and applicable, and created The BEHAVES Academy, a scalable training programme for business. Shelley holds an MSc in Behavioural Science from LSE, alongside qualifications in the Arts and Business. She is a communications expert, behavioural scientist, instructional designer, and change agent.

Rachel A. Wood, Writer/Editor

Highly experienced design leader who has focused her career on public sector service design, development and delivery. She is currently also a PhD Researcher with the Open University Design Group in the UK. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social science with criminology, and another in psychology. In addition, Rachel holds a master’s in forensic psychology, and a postgraduate qualification in early years leadership. She is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society, and a Certified Individual with GAABS.

Editorial Board

Deb Braidic, Marketing and Communications Director

Chief of Staff for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Founder of Wiser Decisions. She has a background in communications, marketing and philanthropy, marketing and communications and is a 2024 graduate of the London School of Economics executive master’s program in Behavioural Science. She has received multiple industry awards for communications, marketing, crisis communications and public relations.

Allison Zelkowitz, Writer/Editor

Founder and Director of the Center for Utilizing Behavioral Insights for Children (CUBIC), a Save the Children initiative applying behavioural science to improve outcomes for marginalised children globally. With over 20 years in international development, Allison has led major humanitarian responses and served as Country Director in Thailand and Lebanon. She holds a Master’s in Pacific and International Affairs from University of California San Diego and a BA from Bowdoin College. Based in Nairobi, she also authors the behavioural science newsletter In a Nutshell.

Sam Osys, Design Lead

Design strategist with 20+ years of experience embedding design theory and strategy in organisations. Her work spans systems thinking, behavioural design, communication, and change, aligning solutions with human and organisational needs. She is completing a STEM PhD on design ethics. Sam is also an international speaker on design and technology ethics and a guest lecturer at the Open University.

Sarah Robertson, Writer/Editor

Workplace behavioural scientist, health researcher, and consultant specialising in psychosocial risk, mental health, and organisational performance. Sarah applies behavioural science and neuroscience to reduce burnout, psychological injury, and absenteeism across healthcare, corporate, and education sectors. With over a decade of experience in Australia and the UK, she holds Master’s degrees in Health Research and Psychosocial Studies and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Political Science.

Karl Lee, Writer/Editor

Behavioural science practitioner and social impact professional focused on applying psychological research to sustainable development. He has worked in consulting, environmental management, and public sector advisory across Asia, Europe, and North America, bringing a cross-cultural perspective to complex challenges. With training in Economic Psychology (LSE) and ongoing studies in Organisational Psychology, Karl works to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners, fostering collaboration to advance behavioural science for social good.

Riyang Phang, PhD, Writer/Editor

Former Head of Behavioural Science for a bank and power utility in the Philippines. He has worked with senior management, product, customer service, and HR teams on projects ranging from timely loan repayment to employee measurement. He has also advised data science teams on experimental design and psychographic segmentation, and publishes research on CEO morality, creativity, employee behaviour, fairness, and opinion diffusion.

Kirra Moser, Project Coordinator

Behavioural Scientist with a professional background in nursing and education. Her applied work focuses on: strategies to support and build resilience in healthcare workforces, proxy decision-making and exploring how behavioural insights can improve personal anticipatory planning behaviours and practices.

Operations

Rebecca Foxcroft, Administrator

Virtual Assistant at GAABS with extensive experience in administrative support, finance, and event management. She helps keep things running smoothly by handling tasks efficiently and ensuring processes are well-organised. Known for her attention to detail and problem-solving skills, Rebecca is a reliable support for the team.

Executive Board of Directors

Torben Emmerling, Chairman

Managing Partner and Chief Behavioural Scientist of ÆCCESS. He is Co-Founder and Faculty Lead of the Applied Behavioural Science Academy, a seasoned lecturer at ETH, HSG and FHNW, and a Harvard Business Review (HBR) and OECD-published author on behavioural economics, decision science and consumer psychology.

Deborah (Deb) Braidic

Paul Nixon

Heads up behavioural finance for Momentum Investments. Drawing on over 20 years of experience with South African insurers and Barclays Bank, he established the company’s applied behavioural finance capability. He holds a distinction-level MBA and master’s degree, with research spanning risk behaviour and machine learning. A published author on financial psychology, Paul is completing a PhD on using machine learning and personality science to enable hyper-personalised engagement.

Steve Martin

CEO of Influence At Work UK, Faculty Director of Behavioural Science at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and guest lecturer on MBA and Senior Executive Education programmes at the London School of Economics, London Business School and Harvard. He is also a Royal Society nominated author in the field of influence and persuasion science.

Samantha (Sam) Osys

Nuala Walsh

Founder of MindEquity, Vice-Chair of UNWomen (UK), board member/advisor at The Football Association, TSLombard and World Athletics. She is an award-winning former Chief Marketing Officer with decades of applied Organisational and Consumer Psychology experience at Standard Life Aberdeen, Merrill Lynch, Blackrock and PA Consulting. Named amongst Top 100 Most Influential Women in Finance. She holds a MSc in Behavioural Science, Masters in Business, BA in Philosophy, and has studied Criminal Psychology.

Madeline Quinlan

Director and co-founder of Salient Behavioural Consultants. She holds an Executive MSc in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, a CFA Charter, and Bachelor degrees in Finance (B.Comm) and Psychology (B.A.). Previous experience spans private, public, and not-for-profit organisations, specialising in fintech, energy, and risk management. Her primary research investigates the impact of mindfulness meditation on financial decision-making.

Melina Moleskis

Behavioural and decision scientist and founder of meta-decisions. She specialises in decision debiasing, corporate training, and behavioural insights consulting. She teaches Behavioural Economics, serves on the Alliance for Decision Education Steering Committee, and helps young professionals make confident workplace decisions. She holds a PhD, MBA, and BSc and is pursuing postdoctoral research in Behavioral Analysis.

Daniel Seyffardt

Behavioural Science Strategy Lead at Affective Advisory. His expertise lies in summarising and translating scientific research and theory into practical models, tools and solutions for clients. He is a lecturer in psychology and sustainability and an HBR-published author. Daniel holds a MSc in Applied Psychology and Economic Behaviour, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Business Administration and Banking.

“The need for a professional body of behavioural scientists is great. The resolution in the form of GAABS is inspired.”

Robert Cialdini, Emeritus Professor at the Arizona State University and GAABS Advisor
“Amidst rapid global growth of applied behavioral science, developing quality standards and safeguarding ethical practices are important goals for GAABS to undertake.”

Jennifer Lerner, Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and GAABS Advisor
“GAABS has a member base of excellent and inspiring behavioural practitioners. The Awards are the platform they deserve to showcase their high quality behavioural science applications.”

Pelle Hansen, Behavioural Scientist at Roskilde University and GAABS Advisor

Emeritus Professor Robert Cialdini

Has spent his entire career researching the science of influence earning him an international reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation. His books are the result of decades of peer-reviewed research on why people comply with requests. He received world-wide recognition of his cutting edge scientific research and ethical business and policy applications. Robert received his doctorate from the University of North Carolina and postdoctoral training from Columbia University. He has held visiting scholar appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Currently, Robert is Regents Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He is CEO and President of INFLUENCE AT WORK.

Professor Lucia Reisch

El-Erian Professor of Behavioural Economics & Policy and the Director of the El-Erian Institute of Behavioural Economics & Policy at the University of Cambridge. Lucia brings two decades of experience with high-level policy consulting on consumer behaviour and behavioural policy. She has been the founding chair of the Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. She has also been a member of several councils, high-level scientific committees and ad hoc groups consulting the German Government and high-profile international organisations. Lucia is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Consumer Policy (SpringerNature) and on the editorial board of Behavioural Public Policy (Oxford University Press) and Food Policy (Elsevier). She has been elected as a lifelong member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and holds several elected and honorary positions in renowned institutions worldwide.

Professor Liam Delaney

Head of the LSE Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science. A former Fulbright and Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow, he has been Deputy Director of the UCD Geary Institute and Deputy Dean of Stirling Management School and has published widely in both economics and psychology journals.

Advisory Board

Professor Jennifer Lerner

The Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy, Decision Science, and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School and Co-Founder of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory. She is the first psychologist in the history of the Harvard Kennedy School to receive tenure. Jennifer also holds appointments in Harvard’s Department of Psychology and Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences. In addition to her roles at Harvard, Jennifer served in a Pentagon assignment from 2018-2019 as the Navy’s first Chief Decision Scientist and as Special Advisor to the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations. Among other honors, Lerner received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She has also received the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award and the National Science Foundation’s "Sensational 60” designation.

Doctor Pelle Hansen

Behavioural Scientist at Roskilde University. He is also the Director of ISSP – The Initiative of Science, Society & Policy at Roskilde University and University of Southern Denmark. Additionally, Pelle is founder and Chairman of the Danish Nudging Network, founder of TEN - The European Nudge Network, and CE of iNudgeYou - The Applied Behavioural Science Group. Pelle was awarded the Ph.D. degree from Roskilde University in game theoretical modelling of social conventions and norms in 2010. Since then he has worked with real world applications of Behavioural Economics, especially with ‘nudge’-interventions, within a wide range of areas from bank-mobility and conformity to tax regulation over organ-donation and street littering to registration processes within Danish Business Authorities. Pelle is co-author of the books “The Blind Spots of Enlightenment“ and “Infostorms“.

Professor Paul Dolan

Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. As a leading figure in Behavioural Science, Paul is currently Professor of Behavioural Science at LSE, former Faculty Director (2014 -2020) and has been a visiting scholar at Princeton University. His main research interests are in the measurement of happiness and in changing behaviour through changing the contexts within which people make choices. He has over 100 peer-reviewed papers and nearly 20,000 citations. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book “Happiness by Design”, and “Happy Ever After”. He has worked extensively with policy-makers, including being secondment into the Cabinet Office to help set up the “Nudge Unit”. He has featured on a number of TV programmes and is committed to making behavioural science more accessible to a public audience.

Doctor Maya Shankar

Currently Google’s Global Director of Behavioral Economics. Prior, Maya served as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House's Behavioral Science Team — a team of scientists charged with improving public policy using research insights about human behavior. In 2016, Maya served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations under Ban Ki-moon. Maya completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at Stanford, after receiving a Ph.D. from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and a B.A. from Yale in cognitive science. She has been profiled by the New Yorker and has been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American, Forbes, and on NPR's All Things Considered, Freakonomics, and Hidden Brain.

Professor Dilip Soman

Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics, and serves as a Director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR]. His research is in the area of behavioural science and its applications to consumer wellbeing, marketing and policy. Dilip is also interested in research on poverty, global health, education and development in the global south. He is the author of "The Last Mile“ and teaches a massive open online course "Behavioural Economics in Action" on EdX. He has also served as the inaugural director of the University’s India Innovation Institute, and as a scholar in residence and a senior policy advisor in the Government of Canada’s Impact and Innovation Unit. Furthermore, he serves as advisor to a number of welfare organisations.

Professor Adam Alter

Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department. Adam’s academic research focuses on judgment and decision-making and social psychology, with a particular interest in the sometimes surprising effects of subtle cues in the environment on human cognition and behavior. His research has been published widely in academic journals, and featured in dozens of TV, radio and print outlets around the world. He received his Bachelor of Science (Honors Class 1, University Medal) in Psychology from the University of New South Wales and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University, where he held the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Honorific Dissertation Fellowship and a Fellowship in the Woodrow Wilson Society of Scholars.

Professor Liam Delaney

Founding Members

Doctor Pelle Hansen

Professor Paul Dolan

Alain Samson, PhD

Founder of BEHAVIORALECONOMICS.COM and editor of the Behavioral Economics Guide, an annual publication that features contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in applied behavioural science. Previously, he worked as a consultant, researcher, and scientific advisor, both independently and through LSE Enterprise, the consulting arm of the London School of Economics. Alain studied at UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan and the London School of Economics, where he obtained a PhD in Social Psychology. His scholarly interests have been eclectic, including culture and cognition, social perception, consumer psychology and behavioural economics. He has published articles in scholarly journals in the fields of management, consumer behaviour and economic psychology. He is also the author of Consumed, a Psychology Today online popular science column about behavioural science.

Torben Emmerling

Steve Martin

Nuala Walsh

Madeline Quinlan

Dario Krpan, PhD

Assistant Professor for Behavioural Science at LSE. He is a behavioural scientist who was trained at the intersection of social and cognitive psychology at Webster University Vienna (undergraduate) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil and PhD). His main research interest lies in uncovering how human body and various contextual forces can be used to influence and predict human motivation and eventually behaviour. Dario is a proponent of multidisciplinary research and is interested in combining methodologies and theoretical approaches from sciences such as economics and physics with psychology to discover most effective ways of changing human behaviour and measuring the behavioural change.

Professor Matteo Galizzi

Associate Professor of Behavioural Science and Co-Director of the Executive MSc in Behavioural Science at the LSE. He is affiliated to the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, and is in the Steering Groups of the LSE Global Health Initiative and of the LSE Behavioural Science Hub. Matteo is an experimental and behavioural economist conducting randomised controlled experiments in the area of health and public policy. Graduated from University of Pavia (Italy), he holds a MSc in Econometrics and a PhD in Economics from the University of York (UK).

Araminta Naylor

Lead Behavioural Architect at Cowry Consulting. She holds an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics and received her MA in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford. She has prior experience in consumer marketing behaviour and currently works across a number of sectors including insurance, wealth management, food retail, and conservation not for profit/charity.

In Gratitude

Every organisation owes a debt of gratitude to the Founders and Advisors who propel it forward, helping to shape what it will ultimately become.

GAABS owes a debt of gratitude to Professor Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024), Nobel Prize Laureate, and prime mover of the Behavioural Science field.

With his wise counsel, GAABS was prompted to form a society “representing the skills, conduct and practices of professional members.” We are proud to be carrying out this vision, and that of so many other great advisors in the field today.

Daniel Kahneman
1934-2024

Nobel Laureate
GAABS Advisory Board Member