Chelsea Shields

Chelsea Shields serves as the CEO and founder of Branthropology Agency, her own consulting company. She began her career as an anthropology professor after earning four degrees in the field, culminating in a dual PhD in biological anthropology and cultural anthropology from Boston University. Her research has explored social placebo effects, examining how meaning, ritual, psychology, and social status influence physiology, including fieldwork in West Africa where she led five field schools in Ghana studying traditional healers and demonstrating physiological entrainment through polyrhythmic drumming. She also contributed to understanding social pain and its neural overlap with physical pain. In 2010, she became a TED Fellow, which shifted her focus toward applying these insights beyond academia. Since then, Chelsea Shields has worked as a consultant and adjunct professor with large enterprise brands, conducting consumer insights research, focus groups, pilot testing, and product development testing. She integrates placebo moments into marketing strategy, brand strategy, and creative strategy to infuse brands and products with unconscious consumer influences. She has delivered two TED Talks and is developing books on the placebo effect and company culture from an anthropological perspective.