Vanessa Bohns is a professor of organizational behavior and psychology at Cornell University. Her research is on social influence, help-seeking, compliance, consent, and why it’s so hard to say no. She is author of the book You Have More Influence Than You Think.
The is more to consent than its legal definition. Understanding how people experience consent has important implications for a variety of social issues, including medical decisions and interactions with law enforcement.
There is plenty of advice on how to gain influence you don’t have. Here’s how to harness the influence that’s already yours.