Vanessa Bohns

Overview

Professor Bohns received her PhD in Social Psychology from Columbia University and her BA in Psychology from Brown University. Prior to joining Cornell, she taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo in Canada. In her primary research, Professor Bohns examines the extent to which people recognize the influence they have over others across a variety of situations. Some of her additional research interests include prosocial and unethical behavior, perspective taking, and self-conscious emotions (e.g., embarrassment, guilt). Her research has been published in academic journals such as Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and has been covered by media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR. Professor Bohns currently sits on the editorial boards of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Social Cognition, and is the Associate Editor of the Social Influence section of Social and Personality Psychology Compass. She teaches Introduction to Organizational Behavior (ILROB 1220), Morality at Work (ILROB 4760), and Negotiations (ILROB 5790).

Publications

Journal Articles

• Vanessa K. Bohns. 2017. A face-to-face request is 34 times more successful than an email, Harvard Business Review .
• M. Roghanizad, Vanessa K. Bohns. 2017. Ask in person: You''re less persuasive than you think over email, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . 69:223-226.
• D. Newark, Vanessa K. Bohns, F. Flynn. 2017. A helping hand is hard at work: Help-seekers’ underestimation of helper effort. , Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes . 139:18-29.
• Vanessa K. Bohns. 2016. (Mis)understanding our influence over others: A review of the underestimation of compliance effect, Current Directions in Psychological Science . 25:119-123.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, Daniel Newark, Amy Xu. 2016. For a dollar, would you..? How (we think) money influences compliance with our requests., Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes . 134:45-62.
• Vanessa K. Bohns. 2015. You’re already more persuasive than you think., Harvard Business Review .
• Vanessa K. Bohns, Abigail A Scholer, Uzma Rehman. 2015. Implicit theories of attraction, Social Cognition . 33:284-307.
• D. Newark, F. J. Flynn, Vanessa K. Bohns. 2014. Once bitten, twice shy: The effect of a past refusal on expectations of future compliance, Social Psychological and Personality Science . 5:218-225.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, M. Roghanizad, A. Xu. 2014. Underestimating our influence over others’ unethical behavior and decisions, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin . 40:348-362.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, F.J. Flynn. 2013. Guilt by design: Structuring organizations to elicit guilt as an affective reaction to failure, Organization Science . 24:1157-1173.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, K. Lucas, G.M. Molden, D.C. Finkle, E.J. Coolsen, M.K. Kumashiro, C.E. Rusbult, C.E. Higgins. 2013. Opposites fit: Regulatory focus complementarity and relationship well-being, Social Cognition . 31:1-14.
• J. Gu, Vanessa K. Bohns, G.J. Leonardelli. 2013. Regulatory focus and interdependent economic decision-making, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . 49:692-698.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, F.J. Flynn. 2013. Underestimating our influence over others at work, Research in Organizational Behavior . 33:97-112.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, S.S. Wiltermuth. 2012. It hurts when I do this (or you do that): Posture and pain tolerance, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . 48:341-345.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, M.J.J. Handgraaf, J.M. Sun, H. Aaldering, C. Mao, J. Logg. 2011. Are social prediction errors universal? Predicting compliance with a direct request across cultures, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . 47:676-680.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, E.T. Higgins. 2011. Liking the same things, but doing things differently: Outcome versus strategic compatibility in partner preferences for joint tasks, Social Cognition . 29:497-527.
• C. Zhong, Vanessa K. Bohns, F. Gino. 2010. Good lamps are the best police: Darkness increases self-interested behavior and dishonesty, Psychological Science . 21:311-314.
• Vanessa K. Bohns, F.J. Flynn. 2010. Why didn’t you just ask? Underestimating the discomfort of help-seeking, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . 46:402-409.
• F.J. Flynn, Vanessa K. Bohns. 2008. If you need help, just ask: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . 95:128-143.

Book Chapters

• Vanessa K. Bohns, F.j. Flynn. 2015. Empathy gaps between helpers and help-seekers: Implications for cooperation. in Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States: Wiley, 2015. Robert A. Scott, Stephen M. Kosslyn.
• G. Leonardelli, Vanessa K. Bohns, J. Gu. 2015. Security seeking in a regulatory focus whodunit: The case of the relative orientation in behavioral economics. in The Handbook of Personal Security. New York, United States: Taylor & Francis, 2015. P.J. Carroll, R.M. Arkin, A. Wichman.
• F.J. Flynn, Vanessa K. Bohns. 2012. Underestimating one’s influence in help-seeking. in Six Degrees of Social Influence: Science, application, and the psychology of Robert Cialdini. New York, New York, United States: Oxford University Press, 2012. D.T. Kenrick, N. Goldstein, S.L. Braver. (14-26)

Professional Activities

• Judging consent for self, other, and the reasonable person: Behavioral and psychological responses to digital privacy violations. Presented to Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Vancouver, BC. 2017.
• Judging the voluntariness of consent: A psychological critique of the Fourth Amendment standard. Presented to Conference on Empirical Legal Studies. Ithaca, NY. 2017.
• Empathy gaps in social influence: Underestimating the awkwardness of saying “no”. Presented to Association for Psychological Science Annual Conference. Boston, MA. 2017.
• The value of a helping hand: Do help-seekers accurately predict help quality?. Presented to Academy of Management. Anaheim, CA. 2016.
• For a dollar, would you..? How (we think) money influences compliance with our requests. Presented to Academy of Management. Vancouver, BC. 2015.
• The Emergence of Vertical vs. Shared Team Leadership: Antecedents and Consequences. Presented to Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research. Pittsburgh, PA. 2015.
• I can''t believe you agreed to that! Underestimating our influence over others’ unethical behavior. Presented to Academy of Management. Philadelphia, PA. 2014.
• The “Asking Tax”: Different expectations for requested versus volunteered favors and concessions. Presented to Academy of Management. Philadelphia, PA. 2014.
• Under- and over-estimating our influence over others at work (chaired symposium). Presented to Academy of Management. Philadelphia, PA. 2014.
• Guilt by design: Structuring organizations to promote guilt as an affective reaction to failure. Presented to Academy of Management. Boston, MA. 2012.
• Embodied power and complementarity in interpersonal interactions. Presented to Society for Personality and Social Psychology. San Diego, CA. 2012.