Jane Frost, chief executive, MRS
Given the challenges facing societal cohesion, it’s got to be The State of Us report. This brilliant piece of research was developed following last year’s riots in the UK and looks at how we can start to address rifts in communities. It’s such a complex issue, but one which is vital to improving the lives of people across the country – and it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say it’s fundamental to securing a future we can look forward to. It was a very worthy winner of the President’s Medal at the MRS Awards 2025.

Crawford Hollingworth, global chair and founder, The Behavioural Architects
The WHO report on the growth of social isolation and loneliness which is sweeping through our cities at pandemic rates – a single society, the connected disconnected – it is a wake-up piece of research that demands action from all of us to help reverse it.

Kelly Beaver, chief executive, UK & Ireland, Ipsos
I was fascinated by a study carried out by Best for Britain, YouGov, Faster Horses, The Policy Institute at King’s College and the Fairness Foundation on the five groups of Reform voters. Reform has unequivocally disrupted Britain’s de facto two-party system, and I thought this work did a great job at unpicking the nuances behind their rise beyond the sensationalist headlines.

Amanda Roberts, qualitative researcher, consumer strategy, Sky
My favourite piece of research was platformed at this year’s MRS &more conference. Mustard Research and CEL Solicitors spoke about their qualitative research with victims of investment and romance fraud.

Off the back of their research, they created the ‘Fraud Recovery Curve’ – which is adapted from the ‘Five Stages of Grief’ model, and depicts the emotional journey a victim will typically endure on the path to acceptance.

This was an incredibly moving piece of research, and reminded me just how powerful qual can be in creating safe spaces for vulnerable audiences to share their experience.

Matilda Andersson, managing director, Truth Consulting
Steven Lacey’s and The Outsiders’ work on right-wing typologies. What I admired most was that it tried to understand something rather than ignore signals we don’t like or don’t want to see. That feels increasingly rare – and increasingly important.

Sabine Stork, senior partner, Thinktank Research
I’m a big fan of Steven Lacey’s work at The Outsiders – his project on the far right seems important and timely and sheds a light on the societal developments that keep me up at night.  

Christina Tarbotton, research director, Boxclever
I hosted the MRS &more conference this year and one presentation that really stuck with me was a passive tracking piece on children’s internet usage, commissioned by Ofcom. I think this is a topic that’s becoming increasingly elusive to parents, and I was genuinely surprised by both the content children were exposed to and the amount of time they spent on social platforms, especially how significantly it changed by age and gender.

James Endersby, chief executive, Opinium
I was really impressed by the work Google has done on neuro-inclusive design in tech. It showed how inclusive thinking can unlock innovation and commercial success at the same time, a real blueprint for the future. It’s the kind of thinking that makes you stop and say: ‘Yes, this is where the industry needs to go’.

Christopher Barnes, president, Escalent
A major US-based insurance agency did important work using behavioural science and AI to inspire consumers in California to change their behaviour and protect their homes from wildfires. It was a great example of using research for good.

• In the first article published in the series, contributors highlighted their standout consumer trends of 2025, including the end of the ‘average consumer', LLMs as influencers and economic pressure.