Uncovering and understanding how and why people think, feel, and behave as they do on a deep level.
Worthy Strategy Group, LLC, is a research and behavioral science consulting group specializing in uncovering and understanding how and why people think, feel, and behave as they do on a deep level.
Leveraging the best in behavioral science, Worthy delivers insights in the policy and political space that support initiatives to make the world a better place. Worthy serves nonprofits, political organizations, causes, and candidates.
WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON NOW
The American Leadership Project
The American Leadership Project was created after years of research by the Worthy Strategy team to uncover what Americans are looking for in their leaders, beyond the conventional wisdom. Our findings showed that women were often completely missing from key categories considered essential for leadership at the highest level.
Read More...
We spent the last 2 years asking progressive to moderately conservative voters to show us images representing the type of leaders they sought for political leaders, including the president. We found that women were considered as ideal leaders only 22% of the time.
This illuminated both a challenge and an opportunity for women seeking or holding higher office and for those who support them. And it let us know that it was time to act.
The team behind the American Leadership Project is made up of seasoned collaborators who’ve worked on some of the biggest movements today – from global nuclear disarmament to working on messaging regarding Ukraine, gender equity and reproductive rights, marriage equality, advancing healthcare for marginalized populations, pushing for gun safety laws, and more. The team, led by Worthy Strategy Group in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute and Movement Advancement Project, represents decades of work to move the needle on the issues that count.
History doesn’t just happen — it’s made. And to help more women reach higher levels of leadership, we must take an active role in changing the game.
Recent Projects of Note
Studying Latinos
Worthy worked with English and Spanish-dominant Latino populations in the southwest to uncover what was driving the Latino vote. More...
Political Work
Discovering an unconscious framework that helped drive youth voter turnout for the 2020 election, leading to this ad, among others. More...
Nuclear Threat
Working with the Nuclear Threat Initiative to locate the core narrative that is most effective to activate the public to nuclear threats. More...
AAPI
Worthy is proud to be currently engaged in supporting a DC-based institution in exploring Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) culture to support the creation of an exciting AAPI experience. More...
Jewish Experience
Working in support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, Worthy explored the Jewish experience and identity in America. Our study examined the personal meaning of being Jewish. More...
Understanding Immigration
Immigration has long held a grip on the American psyche, with many set in their corners and political progress shut down. More...
What Worthy Does
Our “why” at Worthy has always been to support worthy causes, doing work that makes a positive difference in the world with the best behavioral science research and strategy. We pride ourselves in asking the tough questions and going deeper to uncover the root cause of what’s happening while assembling strategies that move the needle.
Cultural Think Tanks
Convening thought leaders, researchers, and stakeholders in important conversations around problems which affect us all to illuminate new paths forward.
Research Consulting and Design
Advising on everything from how to tackle research problems to what kinds of research questions should be asked and how.
Deep Metaphorical Research
In-depth Interviewing and online ethnographies to uncover deep insights about how people think, feel, and behave and how to connect, persuade, and move them to action.
Narrative Analysis and Development
Understanding larger cultural narratives and designing messaging campaigns.
Behavioral Science Workshops
Workshops on brain and behavioral science, persuasion theory and communication strategy, custom-tailored for your needs.
Team
Gretchen Barton, Principal
Gretchen Barton is the founder of Worthy Strategy Group, LLC, and former Research Director at Future Majority. She is a deep-listening researcher and strategist who has designed and led research initiatives in the political and policy space across America on poverty, the youth vote, global nuclear weapons disarmament, immigration, gender in America, what Americans need in their next President, how Americans know what’s true, what the Democratic and Republican party brands mean, and more. She recently completed deep-dive studies of American swing-state voters across the nation and in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Rural Wisconsin/Iowa/Minnesota, and Virginia, along with a deep dive into how Americans know what’s true. She’s worked on presidential to mayoral campaigns and is currently leading an initiative called What it Will Take, laying the narrative groundwork for the first female president, and advising on History Wars, a Johns Hopkins research initiative looking to unpack a way to bring Americans together around a shared future, if not a shared history. Gretchen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications and Planning Campaigns with distinction in research from Cornell University. She has written for the Journal of College Student Development and the American Journal of Health Behavior, and co-authored, Prevalence and Profiling: Hazing Among College Students and Points of Intervention. She is the co-author of “The Science of Winning with Stories: Using Agency, Urgency, and Community,” a reflection on the most effective messaging to engage and move a populace, and is the author of Making Americans the Hero of the Story: A Quick Guide to Greatness.
Kirk Cheyfitz, Board Member
Kirk Cheyfitz is a narrative strategist and writer helping progressive candidates, nonprofits, and causes persuade and activate people with research-driven storytelling. Previously, Kirk was an award-winning newspaper journalist, a successful publishing entrepreneur, and a senior advertising executive. A communications innovator, he was a pioneer of content marketing and the rise of stories in advertising, particularly online. He built the world’s first global content agency for McCann Worldgroup, took it private in 2005 as Story Worldwide, and led the agency until selling it in 2015. The next year, he founded Kirk Cheyfitz / Political Narrative, based in New York City.
Kirk Cheyfitz, Board Member
Kirk Cheyfitz is a narrative strategist and writer helping progressive candidates, nonprofits, and causes persuade and activate people with research-driven storytelling. Previously, Kirk was an award-winning newspaper journalist, a successful publishing entrepreneur, and a senior advertising executive. A communications innovator, he was a pioneer of content marketing and the rise of stories in advertising, particularly online. He built the world’s first global content agency for McCann Worldgroup, took it private in 2005 as Story Worldwide, and led the agency until selling it in 2015. The next year, he founded Kirk Cheyfitz / Political Narrative, based in New York City.
Catharine Hays, Board Member
Catharine Findiesen Hays is a pioneering marketing and sales strategist. She co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Wharton Future of Advertising Program from 2008 – 2018. There she cultivated and convened a network of over 500 executives, innovators, and academics to make the future of marketing and advertising markedly better for brands, people, and society. Catharine has developed and led research collaborations with Google, Facebook, Deloitte, Yahoo!, Hearts & Science, P&G, and others. She has also keynoted and led executive sessions at Cannes Lions, Forbes CMO Excursion, Deloitte’s Next CMO Academy, and more. Previously, she led marketing, strategy, and sales teams during a 16-year career at AT&T. Catharine, a proud mother of two exceptional daughters now resides in her home state of Vermont, which she returned to in May 2020 to lead the Bixby Memorial Free Library as Director. Catharine co-authored Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints, Wiley 2016.
Frequent Collaborators
BLOG
The Science of Winning with Stories
By Worthy Strategy Group & Kirk Cheyfitz | Sept 18, 2020Using Agency, Urgency, and Community The Democratic Party has been relying on a largely outmoded approach to communicate with voters. The...
Killer Metaphors
How A Metaphor Can Kill You (or Save Your Life) In 2015, Sarah Kliff and VOX news conducted a remarkable investigation into the different ways hospitals think of, prepare for and respond to medical...
In The News
Featured on he Common Good Podcast!
In this episode of the Common Good Podcast, titled “Why Politicians Should Make Americans the Hero of the Story,” hosts Doug Pagitt and Robb Ryerse engage in a compelling conversation with Gretchen Barton of Future Majority and Worthy Strategy Group. They explore the influential power of narratives in politics and discuss the significance of positioning Americans as heroes in political messaging.
Joe Biden recently positioned his campaign with Americans as the hero of this story.
We’re proud to have been part of the thinking that led to this strategic positioning. Our research shows that the hero story runs deep in America and that voters, not politicians, should be centered in everything.
Featured on Latest Podcast Episode!
I’m thrilled to share that I was a guest on a recent podcast episode. We discussed the nuances of leadership perceptions, especially for women in politics, and explored key insights on the 2024 Electoral College predictions. Plus, discover what UVA students think about political leadership. Dive in, and I’d love to hear your feedback!
To win in 2024, Democrats must become the party of economic renewal
To win in 2024, Democrats must become the party of economic renewal by connecting President Biden’s achievements with improvements to voters’ well-being, and focusing on domestic production and good-paying jobs as per Rep. Ro Khana’s concept of Economic Patriotism.
Murderous Putin is sure of his own impunity. He could not be more wrong
The Russian dictator believes himself to be above international law but there are many ways to make him pay for his war crimes. With every atrocity that goes unpunished, Russia’s aim of furthering an age of utter impunity, where dictators can slaughter civilians and wipe out whole nations as they please, comes closer.
There’s a solution to the labor shortage — and it’s the undocumented workers who are already here
The United States is in a transitional economic moment, moving from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic through a period of recovery to a more traditional economic expansion.
How a zombie apocalypse is informing a new wave of Dem ads
Wide Angle Research, a nonprofit firm, has conducted extensive, cutting-edge research on voter behavior. And they’re turning it into animated ads for the close of the midterms.
Reach Out
See something interesting? Want to discuss something more? Contact us.
Nuclear Threat
Working in partnership with NTI (the Nuclear Threat initiative), Worthy led a team of narrative strategists, researchers, and creatives to help understand how to engage the public around global nuclear disarmament. The initiative uncovered deep insights into how Americans think and feel about the future for generations to come, their hopes and dreams for the future and the threats they see that can end the possibility of that future. The work identified the necessity of offering up a positive future vision in long term communications engagement as well as the larger metanarrative and sub narratives for key segments of the population. To further explore the work and see the research, click here.
A National Museum Project
Worthy is proud to work with colleagues in the museum field to apply a ground-breaking and diversified research approach leveraging large-scale media consumption analysis, ethnographic research, and Community-Centered Design to inform and inspire permanent exhibit space. We’re joined by an all-star research and strategy team comprised of Michelle Magalong of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation, Harmony Labs, and Shift Collective.
The Jewish Experience
Working in support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, Worthy explored the meaning behind the Jewish experience and identity in America. The work featured a deep dive into the meaning of being Jewish along with an ethnographic exploration of where Judaism showed up in our participant’s lives. Ultimately, the initiative identified key barriers to and opportunities for engagement with the Jewish community and established a foundational understanding of what it means to be Jewish and how the Jewish community might better engage with Jews across America.
Political Work
Worthy Strategy Group works in partnership with Future Majority to deliver game changing insights into the political space with a speciality in deep dive metaphorical interviews and comprehensive ethnographies. Worthy supported a number of messaging groups in the buildup to the 2020 election (NextGen, New Moral Majority, Way to Win, Future Majority, and others) advising on behavioral science strategies, uncovering key messaging insights to turn out the youth vote (which led to this ad, among others), revealing voters’ deepest hopes and dreams for presidential campaigns, and uncovering deep insights in real-time to key organizers in the build up to the 2020 election.
Worthy works across the United States, looking into the unconscious minds of voters in key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Rural Wisconsin/Iowa/Minnesota, and Virginia to identify how voters see the world, what they need on a conscious and unconscious level and how politicians can meaningfully meet them where they are and deliver. Additionally, Worthy has led on misinformation for the political community, by holding a misinformation conference and doing a study on how Americans know what’s true by looking at religious and political converts and loyalists and identifying the ways in which people change their beliefs and identify what’s true. Worthy, in partnership with Future Majority and Wide Angle Research, also led a study into how Americans see the political parties of today, why they think and feel as they do, and what it means for our parties moving forward. For more on Worthy’s work in the political space and to see recent studies, please click here.
Understanding Immigration
Immigration has long held a grip on the American psyche, with many set in their corners and political progress shut down. Understanding how important it is to get immigration right, the Opportunity Agenda and Butterfly Lab joined forces with Worthy Strategy Group to uncover a deeper understanding of how people perceive immigration, what makes someone belong, and how we can change the conversation and move immigration from a threat to an asset, meeting Americans where they’re at and addressing their concerns while creating a mutual benefit paradigm for immigration. In the study, we explored how key segments across the United States view belonging, what it means to be and become an American, how Americans view immigration, and what is possible in terms of delivering a means for immigration to mean a safer, wealthier, happier, and more prosperous society. For more on this groundbreaking work, please click here.
Studying Latinos
Worthy worked with English and Spanish-dominant Latino populations in the southwest to uncover what was driving the Latino vote, and how their experiences and identities shaped their perception of America, feelings about the economy, and perceptions of who really matters in America. The work included a wide-ranging ethnographic exploration and identified key opportunities to deeply connect with and engage with Latinos while identifying pitfalls for those seeking to connect with this important population.