Braunstein Family Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior, Cornell University

Vanessa Bohns is the Braunstein Family Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University’s ILR School. She is trained as a social psychologist with a PhD in psychology from Columbia University and an AB in psychology 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.

Professor Bohns is an expert on help-seeking, social influence, compliance, and consent—or, why it’s so hard to ask for things, and why it’s so hard to say no. Her research has been published in top academic journals in psychology, management, and law, including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organization Science, and Yale Law Review, and has been covered in media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Atlantic, Economist, Washington Post, and on podcasts such as Hidden Brain and TED Work Life with Adam Grant.

Professor Bohns has written more than two dozen op-eds and essays for outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Her first book, You Have More Influence Than You Think (2021, W. W. Norton), was named a Financial Times “Business Title of the Month” and a “Best Book for Ethical Leaders” by Notre Dame’s Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership. Her second book, Should I Say Something?, will be published by Hachette Book Group in Fall 2026.