Born into a traditional Mormon family, Brandthropologie founder, Dr. Chelsea Shields has always been fascinated by the very real effects that symbols, colors, expectations, and suggestion can have on the human body & psyche.  

 

She recieved dual-PhD's in Biological & Cultural Anthropology from Boston University, where she specialized in sociocultural placebo effects-- or how perception alters biochemistry. Over the course of a decade, Shields led an international field school for students and professors and conducted her own longitudinal fieldwork among Asante Indigenous healers in Ghana, West Africa. Working closely with her dissertation advisors, Dr. Parker Shipton, Dr. Robert A. Levine, Dr. Charles Lindholm, and Dr. Ted Kaptchuk, Director of the Program In Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School, Shields discovered novel findings on social susceptibility, the evolution of social placebo effects, polyrhythmic drumming, group entrainment, and the social mechanisms of the social-pain overlap theory.   

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Dr. Shields is admittedly obsessed with the power that humans have to biochemically- harm and benefit others- just based on the social, cultural, and psychological cues we often unconsciously communicate. Her mission in life is to teach the world about social placebo effects (or how visuals, emotions, stories, rituals, & meaning, etc.) biochemically impact audiences, so we can all wield that power better! Whether it's teaching university students, creative agencies, executive boardrooms, or TED speakers, it's always the same. Your ability to command attention, get respect, and persuade action relies more on how you make people feel, rather than what you say. We ALL know this, yet so few brands invest in understanding their consumer, and even fewer know how to strategically communicate in order to elicit predictable emotional responses. 

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Shields utilizes this background to lead large research & strategy projects for top enterprise companies and agencies worldwide- running focus groups, surveys, point-of-sale intercepts, consumer interviews, product development iterative testing, creative validation testing, UX/UI/SUS digital testing, large event research, etc. Basically, anything you need to test with actual users! Then, the real magic happens. Dr. Shields analyzes all of the macro-data to find patterns and opportunities for strategic positioning, communication, and emotional evocation that will increase key performance metrics. This 360-degree, consumer-centric, strategic testing is priceless to big brands and largely inaccessible to small ones. Shields started Brandthropologie Agency as a way for ALL brands to afford quality consumer research and applied human behavioral expertise. 

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Shields also enjoys applying her knowledge of social placebo effects toward coaching speakers with their stage presence, confidence, vocal command, and style signaling. Shields is a TED Fellow (since 2010), a 3x TED Speaker, (on Social Health & Religious Gender Inequality) and 6x TEDx Speaking Coach, who regularly teaches executive speaking and media training courses focused on the impact that non-verbal communication-- body language,  micro-expressions, & cultural signaling-- has on audiences. 

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Shields lives in SLC, UT with her creative daughter and sweet cat and has accomplished her life-long goal of belonging authentically as the black sheep of her large, loving Mormon family.