David Neal

David is a social and behavioral psychologist specializing in behavior change. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne and completed his post doctoral training at Duke, where he was Director of the Social Science Research Laboratories. David was a professor of psychology at USC before founding Empirica Research, a social and consumer firm specializing in behavior change.

David’s academic research focuses on understanding basic mechanisms of habitual control in daily life, including the influence of environmental cues, planning, and self-control. Outside academia, his work focuses on translating the basic science of habit into effective interventions to foster lasting behavior change, including through health campaigns, policy changes, environmental re-engineering and through simple strategies individuals and organizations can deploy in the real world.