Research
Our products are closely informed by our research & development team.
This means partnering with leading academics, collecting valuable research and conducting studies to contribute in the fields of social and communication health.
Who do we work with?
We work with academics across Organisational Management & Behaviour, Social Science, Conversation Science, and even Neuroscience.
We also hold events to learn from people on the ground.
You can read a full list of our academic partners, and browse past events below.
Our blog
by this+that and Kirsty Sedgman, Bristol
Our research blog is authored by cultural studies scholar & Doctor of Audiences, Professor Kirsty Sedgman. (Author: On Being Unreasonable 2023)
In 2022 and 2023 we illuminated the science of conversation and its impact on individual and collective social health. We continue to dive deep into phenomena like loneliness, active listening and the ins-and outs of Social Fitness.
Our studies ✍︎
‘Group discussion: non-human moderation + time-boxing’ a study by this+that and Harvard Business School, 2021-2022
Are we naturally democratic speakers in a group? Is it instinctual or do we rely on moderation and structure? What interventions dictate this?
We partnered with Harvard Business School researchers (Nicole Abi-Esber, Katelynn Boland) to study the effects of:
1) non-human moderation and 2) time-allocated speaking time — on group discussion behaviour.
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Together with HBS we dug into the possible conditions which encourage speakers to give fair and equitable airtime to one another. The study harnessed our Beta tool as a digital intervention and moderation tool for each studied group.
Publishing estimated for December 2023.
Read the full transcript with member access.
#communication #groupdiscussion #speakingequity #speakerbehaviour
Highlighted studies + literature☺︎
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, 2022
“Our social life is a living system, and it needs maintenance too. One of the ways you can do it is through tiny actions.” — Robert Waldinger
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Explores the findings from the 85-year long Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the most comprehensive and longest-running studies on human happiness. Also coined by medical experts as ‘Social Fitness’ .
Key findings:
— Quality, not the quantity, of relationships that matters. Having a few deep and meaningful connections is more important than having numerous shallow relationships.
— Good relationships protect our health and well-being. They act as a buffer against life's challenges and contribute to longevity.
— Individuals with strong and supportive relationships tend to have better physical and mental health outcomes.
— Investing time and effort in cultivating and nurturing relationships pays off. It is an essential component of leading a happy and fulfilling life.
#socialhealth #socialfitness #relationalhealth #socialdisconnection #loneliness
Our academic partners
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Dr. Kirsty Sedgman, an audience expert based at the University of Bristol, writes our blog. Kirsty specialises in culture, communication, and human behaviour, and has spent her career studying how people can live side by side in the same world yet come to understand it in totally different ways. Kirsty appears regularly in the media, and her latest book, On Being Unreasonable, is out now with Faber & Faber.
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Dr. Nicole Abi-Esber is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics. Nicole holds a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from the Harvard Business School. Nicole's research has been published in outlets such as The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (pdf), and has been covered by The New York Times.
Her research examines how leaders can create climates of safety and inclusion, where everybody feels safe to speak their mind. Her work uses group laboratory experiments and conversation analysis methods including natural language processing.
Prior to her doctorate degree from Harvard Business School, Nicole worked as a product manager for technology startups in emerging markets, as a researcher with the Government of Dubai, and as a research associate at the Behavioural Lab at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
She is also our co-researcher in our 2021-2022 study into the effects of non-human moderation and time-allocated speaking equity on group discussion behaviour.
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Professor Sophie Scott CBE is the director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, where she runs a lab. In 2020 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to Neuroscience.
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Elizabeth’s research is in conversation analysis, focused on understanding how social interaction works in settings from first dates to medicine and healthcare; from mediation to police crisis negotiation and emergency service calls, and from sales encounters to interaction in “SaaS” (Software as a Service) platforms and conversational user interfaces.
The common thread in her work is the identification of effective and less effective interactional practices and their impact on the outcome of conversational encounters. She has published over 150 research outputs.
Elizabeth is passionate about translating her research in conversation analysis for wider audiences and she has presented and discussed her research at many science festivals and events including at Microsoft, Google, TED, Latitude Festival, and The Royal Institution, and featured on BBC Radio 4’s “The Life Scientific” and “Word of Mouth."
Her book, Talk: The Science of Conversation, was published in 2018 (Little, Brown). Since 2008, she has worked extensively with external partners across public, third, and private sectors, and been a industry fellow at Typeform and Deployed.
Our ambassadors
Learning about social and communication health means also listening to people.
Our community consists of makers, thinkers, activists, skeptics and dreamers.
At the helm are our ambassadors who have blended their careers with a mission to understand communication, people and happiness.
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Community Strategist and host of Creativity Squared podcast. Read our interview with her here.
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June is known as a transformational Business Strategist behind pivotal growth at brands like Disney and Godiva.
Beneath professional greatness, we’ve come to know June for her deep anthropological curiosity, as a covert collector of art and culture, and mentor to people of all ages.
Drawn to “perplexing structural and cultural paradigms”, June employs something distinctly people-oriented in her thinking, no matter the scenario or brief.
Her enquiring mind is five steps ahead of the curve and characterises our community to a tee.
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Long-time friend of the community,
Marshall is a vocal communication expert, pioneering the fields of ‘tonal influence’™ and ‘affective presence’ in his book and coaching.
Marshall positions himself at the intersection of emotional intelligence, influence and and vocal expression.
He is a relied upon figure to sharpen the skills of high-profile CEOs and speakers, through to teenagers he mentors to hone their personal power, and activate their voice.