Behavioral Scientist

Rare inspires change so people and nature thrive. Over more than three decades, Rare has partnered with local organizations to run more than 400 projects in 60 countries, all focused on driving community-led adoption of behavioral solutions to promote coastal fishery recovery, regenerative agriculture, climate change mitigation, and more. Over its history, the vast majority of this work has taken place at the level of individual small to medium-sized communities and geographies. Rare now has an opportunity to begin working at the scale of mass media and entertainment, including but not limited to television and film, to inspire media consumers to change their own behavior to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity and natural ecosystems, reduce pollution of lands and waterways, and more, using the power of behavioral science and behavior-centered design.

This role in Rare's Center for Behavior & the Environment is designed for a behavioral science expert with an incredible breadth of knowledge across the field paired with a remarkably strong ability to communicate those ideas clearly and compellingly. This role gives the opportunity to leverage those skills through partners to not only impact the environment, but millions of lives across the globe.

Reporting to Rare's Behavioral Science Lead in the Center for Behavior & the Environment and working very closely with the Program Director for Entertainment Media on the Make It Personal team, the Behavioral Scientist will...

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Advising - Work closely with media and entertainment partners to advise on the incorporation of behavioral science into content strategy with a combination of scientific rigor that demonstrates a breadth and depth of expertise as well as an ability to communicate compellingly to a lay audience
• Behavioral and Psychological Research - Collaborate with other behavioral scientists in the Center for Behavior & the Environment and partners to conduct compelling research on the effect of media exposure on pro-environmental behaviors
• Thought Leadership - Speak and write about topics related to climate and behavioral science for internal and external audiences
• Tool Development - Collaborate on the development of learning materials, toolkits, and trainings to support the application of behavioral science to entertainment and media content development

Valuable Skills and Experience:

• Expert-level knowledge of the behavioral sciences, including psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, anthropology, and sociology, covering foundational as well as recent research;
• Communicating concepts from the behavioral sciences in clear tangible ways, demonstrating their applicability and making acting on them accessible to a non-expert audience;
• Analyzing a real-world problem to identify applicable concepts and insights from the behavioral sciences;
• Designing and executing secondary research to synthesize primary literature for non-expert audience;
• Designing an executing experimental and quasi-experimental research to estimate the causal impact of interventions on psychological and behavioral outcomes;
• Collaborating in a partner-facing role as a topic expert, involving carefully listening to interpret and understand key questions, and communicating to not only to convey expertise but to advance project objectives;
• Familiar with basic climate science and trends (a deep base of knowledge is not required but some familiarity and literacy in the climate space will serve this role well);
• Managing projects and people, including the ability to manage up, down and across;
• Thriving in cross-functional team environments to build relationships across geographical distances, cultural communities, and up and down the organizational structure

Commitments:

• To Rare's mission and values;
• To addressing important environmental issues such as climate change is required. Deep experience working on these issues is not necessarily required;
• To the success of a team, to both teach and learn from others, and toggle comfortably between directing and supportive roles as needed

This is a full-time remote role and the selected candidate should have current residence in one of the following states:

• Virginia
• Maryland
• DC
• California
• Washington
• Florida
• Texas
• Georgia
• North Carolina
• Indiana
• Delaware
• Maine
• Oregon
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Massachusetts

Rare is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply; EOE/M/F/D/V