Ep 222. Vanessa Bohns: You Have More Influence Than You Think

Ep 222. Vanessa Bohns: You Have More Influence Than You Think

“So often we feel as if we have little impact. However, the research shows that in fact people see us, and agree to do things for us more often than we realize — for better, and worse.”

Vanessa Bohns

Vanessa Bohns is a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Her new book is You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why it Matters. Vanessa holds a PhD in psychology from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review, and her research has been featured by the Wall Street Journal and NPR’s Hidden Brain.

In this episode, Stew talks with Vanessa Bohns about eye-opening research on how people undervalue the impact they have on others and what this means for our lives at work, at home, and in the community. They discuss practical implications for how to ask for help, most effective means for negotiating boundaries between work and home, how to persuade people to take action on social issues like climate change, how embarrassment informs morality, and more.

Here then is an invitation for you, a challenge, after you’ve had a chance to listen to this episode: Think of someone who you want to ask for help and use what you learned from this conversation in making that ask. Share your reactions to this episode and suggestions for future shows with Stew by writing to him at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu or via LinkedIn.

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