Meet Matt Wallaert | Applied Behavioral Science

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Wallaert and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I believe deeply in T-shaped careers: many broad horizontal interests, one area of deep vertical expertise. So while I’ve worked in many different industries and across a lot of different roles, it was always with that very particularly focus on applied behavioral science as a method for creating change. That specialization really has been key to being successful.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My career has been both uniquely challenging and rewarding. On the one hand, I have had the tremendous fortune of getting to pioneer a field; applied behavioral science wasn’t a career when I first started that work and so it was wide open, whereas now you need more experience and credentials to get the same kind of opportunities. That said, because it wasn’t really a career, I’ve had to convince both people and companies to make space for it and that journey continues today. Part of work is balancing the ability to do something original with the fact that doing something people already understand it just far, far easier. Finding the right mix makes a huge difference in your ability to move forward.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a homebody, so I’d probably stick pretty close to where I live: Taco Stand in La Jolla for lunch, then catch the swell at Law Street until sunset, maybe finish up with some Chinese food at Mandarin House. I think there can be this pressure to go to a place and see some sort of greatest hits version of what makes it famous. But I chose to live in San Diego because of what makes it great every day – sunshine, the ocean, and a chance to just settle. Coming from NYC, where everything is always moving, I love the stillness here.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ve had a ton of folks make a difference in my career but no one deserves more credit than Andrew Ward. I was taking a class of his at Swarthmore on the psychology of self-control and we read a study I just didn’t agree with. I didn’t think the research was bad but it felt like the conclusion overreached the data.

And Andrew gave me the best possible gift. He said “Look, the field and your peers agreed on this interpretation. But if you think it is wrong, this is science and we have an orderly way to respond, which is by running your own experiment to gather data and prove an alternative. And if you want to do that, you’re welcome to do it in my lab.”

That was huge for me. It was fundamentally egalitarian (rightness is about evidence, not power), it welcomed me in, and it set the course for the rest of my career.

Website: https://mattwallaert.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattwallaert/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwallaert/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/mattwallaert/