Iris Bohnet

Iris Bohnet is Professor of Public Policy and the director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also the co-chair of the Behavioral Insights Group (BIG) at the Center for Public Leadership at HKS, an associate director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory and the faculty chair of the executive program Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century for the World Economic Forums Young Global Leaders. A behavioral economist combining insights from economics and psychology, her research focuses on questions of trust and decision-making, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Professor Bohnet teaches decision-making, negotiation and gender in public policy and leadership in degree and executive programs, and has been engaged in the teaching, training and consulting of private and public sector leaders in the United States, Europe, India and the Middle East.

Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Bohnet, Iris, Alexandra van Geen, and Max Bazerman. "When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint vs. Separate Evaluation." Management Science (September 29, 2015).
• Bohnet, Iris, Benedikt Herrmann, and Richard Zeckhauser. "Trust and the Reference Points for Trustworthiness in Gulf and Western Countries." Quarterly Journal of Economics 125.2 (May 2010): 811-828.
• Ashraf, Nava, Iris Bohnet, and Nikita Piankov. "Decomposing Trust and Trustworthiness." Experimental Economics 9.3 (September 2006): 193-208.

Books

Bohnet, Iris. What Works: Gender Equality by Design. Harvard University Press, 2016.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

Bohnet, Iris, Benedikt Herrmann, Mohamad Al-Ississ, Andrea Robbett, Khalid Al-Yahia, and Richard Zeckhauser. "The Elasticity of Trust: How to Promote Trust in the Arab Middle East and the United States." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP10-031, June 2010.

Outside Professional Activities

Transparent Engagement

Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School.

Outside Professional Activities For Iris Bohnet

Speaker:

• MIT Sloan Women in Management (academic institution), Cambridge, January 2016
• Credit Suisse 100 Women in Hedge Funds and CS D&I (financial services firm), Zurich, January 2016
• Lucerne Festival (book talk), Luzern, January 2016
• Women in Parliaments Global Forum (professional network), Davos, January 2016
• MIT Sloan Women and Management Conference (academic institution), Cambridge, February 2016
• International Women’s Day, Credit Suisse (financial services firm), New York, March 2016
• Politics and Prose (book talk), Washington D.C., March 2016
• The World Bank (NGO), Washington D.C., March 2016
• New America Foundation (NGO) Washington D.C., March 2016
• SxSW Interactive Festival (book talk), Austin, March 2016
• Mechanic’s Institute (book talk), San Francisco, March 2016
• Mozilla (open-source software company), San Francisco, March 2016
• L’Oreal (cosmetics and beauty company), New York, March 2016
• PAREXEL (consulting firm), Waltham, March 2016
• Google (technology company), Cambridge, April 2016
• Harvard Bookstore (book talk), Cambridge, April 2016
• London Book Fair (book talk), London, April 2016
• How-to Academy (book talk), London, April 2016
• KPMG (professional service firm), London, April 2016
• The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (NGO), London, April 2016
• London School of Economics (academic institution), London, April 2016
• Behavioral Insights Team (government institution), London, April 2016
• OECD (intergovernmental organization), Paris, April 2016
• UNESCO (intergovernmental organization), Paris, April 2016
• Google (technology company), Hamburg, April 2016
• University of Zurich (academic institution), Zurich, April 2016
• Women in Cable Telecommunications, Boston, May 2016
• UN Women (NGO), New York, May 2016
• DLD Conference (book talk), New York, May 2016
• L’Oreal (cosmetic and beauty company), New York, May 2016
• Airbus Group (aerospace company), Netherlands, May 2016
• Women in Cable Telecommunications (non-profit industry affinity group), Boston, May 2016
• Ford Foundation (philanthropic foundation), New York, May 2016
• Unitive (technology company), San Francisco, August 2016
• Fiera Capital (investment management firm), Boston, September 2016
• MassBio (biotechnology company), Boston, September 2016
• Varde (investment firm), Minneapolis, September 2016
• HUBWeek (book talk), Cambridge, September 2016
• Women in the Treasury (UK government), London, September 2016
• DONG Energy (energy sector company), London, September 2016
• Boston College (academic institution), Boston, September 2016
• Tuev (service corporation), Munich, October 2016
• FidAR (women in management association), Munch, October 2016
• The Boston Club (women’s organization), Boston, October 2016
• University of Zurich (academic institution), Zurich, November 2016
• Mueller Moehl Foundation (philanthropic foundation), Zurich, November 2016
• SAFE Ireland (non-profit), Dublin, November 2016
• IMF (NGO), Washington DC, December 2016
• US Department of Defense (government agency), Washington DC, December 2016
• Simmons School of Management (academic institution), Boston, December 2016
• Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (non-profit), Boston, December 2016

Participant:

• World Economic Forum Meetings

Board Member:

• Credit Suisse (financial services firm), member of the board of directors, Zurich
• EDGE (consulting firm), member of the academic advisory board, Geneva
• BeApplied (tech start-up), member of the advisory board, London
• University of Luzern (academic institution), member of the board, Luzern

Consultant:

• VicHealth (Australia government agency), Leading Thinker, Victoria