You Have More Influence Than You Think

Vanessa Bohns

A social psychologist and an associate professor in the ILR School, Bohns focuses her research on social influence—the subject of her first book, subtitled How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters. Drawing from her own studies as well as those of colleagues, she explores how people impact each other’s choices and preferences, even when neither party realizes it. “This revelation can be both empowering and sobering,” she writes. “On the one hand, it means that having influence is in many ways easier and less extraordinary than we can imagine…. On the other hand, this also means that there have likely been times you influenced someone else unintentionally, in ways you may even wish you hadn’t.”