Power: How and Why We Underestimate Our Own Influence | Vanessa Bohns

Vanessa Bohns has focused her research on social influence and the psychology of compliance and consent. In particular, she examines the extent to which people recognize the influence they have over others. She and host Greg Wool discuss influence in the workplace, including a deep dive into the reasons managers often underestimate the power they have over their directs, as well as the subtle complications relating to workplace romance. She also shares research involving "voluntary searches” conducted by police, and why people are often bad predictors of how they will react in tense situations. Finally, they look at organizational design and behaviors that managers and organizations can encourage to facilitate the best performance by their employees. Vanessa Bohns is an associate professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University and her AB in Psychology from Brown University. Her research has been published in top academic journals in Psychology, Social Psychology, Management and law, and has been covered in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist and NPR. She is an associate editor at the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and teaches the courses “Introduction to Organizational Behavior,” “Morality at Work,” and “Negotiations” at Cornell. Links from the Episode at presentvaluepod.com Faculty Page: Vanessa Bohns Organizational Design Paper: "Guilt by Design..."