Behavioral Research Associate, Center for Behavior & the Environment

Position Overview

About Rare:

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. In 2017, Rare launched the Center for Behavior & the Environment to bring the best insights from behavioral science and design to tackle the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. This team of researchers, trainers, and designers works to elevate and integrate behavioral science into environmental programming through research, training, and advising both internal and external to Rare. In 2019, Rare launched its Climate Culture program, aiming to apply behavioral science to help millions of Americans shift their behavior to more climate-friendly options. Throughout the development of the Climate Culture program, The Center for Behavior and the Environment has worked closely to provide behavioral science expertise in integrating research into program design and evaluation.

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

Position Overview:

Reporting to the Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Center for Behavior & the Environment, the Behavioral Research Associate role is designed to leverage and build on the behavioral science skills of an early career researcher in all elements of the research process, from design and execution to analysis and presentation. This role will be assigned work hand in hand with the Climate Culture team to apply this research in helping Americans shift towards climate-friendly behaviors.

Essential Functions:

Qualitative and Quantitative Research

• Supporting behavioral science research projects through their entire research cycle. This includes assisting in designing a study to evaluate that research question, executing that design in multiple modalities including both qualitative and quantitative elements, rigorously analyzing the collected data, and reporting those results in both a scientifically accurate and widely understandable way.
• Past example: Support of the design, execution, and analysis of a study testing the effect of descriptive norm messaging on the purchasing of carbon offsets via Facebook and Google Ads

Secondary Research

• Review, compile, and report on findings in the behavioral science literature to support the design of new interventions and research.
• Past product example: Literature review on adopting a plant-rich diet, including the demographics of current buyers, known barriers and motivations, and current interventions being deployed to shift these behaviors

Project Management

• Planning and overseeing projects, including partner communications, scheduling, status monitoring, keeping meeting minutes, and coordinating the delivery project outputs
• Past example: For a major climate workshop, participate in weekly planning meetings to ensure key milestones are met through, minute taking, objective tracking, and proactive coordination.

Materials Development

• Drawing on your knowledge of behavioral science, develop materials for key internal and external audiences which help them apply these insights to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These materials will come in multiple forms, including briefs, toolkits, and training activities.
• Past example: A blog post showcasing a study which highlights the relevance of the anchoring effect in increasing willingness to purchase carbon offsets

Skills and Experience:

• Knowledge of the behavioral sciences, such as psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, anthropology, or sociology. This may or may not have been developed during a bachelor's or master's degree;
• Experience executing primary behavioral science research, such as experiments, surveys, and qualitative interviews;
• Experience executing secondary research, such as synthesizing primary research in literature reviews;
• Statistical analysis skills, including analyzing experiments and surveys;
• Ability to communicate concepts from the behavioral sciences in clear tangible ways, demonstrating their applicability and making acting on them accessible to a non-expert audience;
• Ability to independently acquire new quantitative and qualitative skills based on project needs;
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to complete complex instructions in a timely manner;
• Familiarity 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);
• Ability to thrive 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 working outside of comfort zone to achieve team goals

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