Vanessa Bohns is the Braunstein Family Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University’s ILR School. She is an expert on social influence, compliance, consent, why it's so hard to ask for things, and why it’s so hard to say no. Professor Bohns holds a PhD in Psychology from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the NYU Stern School of Business and has taught at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Her research has been published in top academic journals in psychology, management, and law, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, and on NPR's Hidden Brain, among other media outlets. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Business Insider, and elsewhere. Her first book, You Have More Influence Than You Think, was published in 2021 by W. W. Norton, and her second book, To Speak or Not to Speak, will be published in 2026 by Hachette.