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Negotiate Anything

You Have More Influence Than You Think With Vanessa Bohns

Nov 25, 2023
Vanessa Bohns, a social psychologist, discusses how we often underestimate our influence on others. She shares findings from her research, including a study where participants were surprised by the number of agreements they obtained when asking for favors. The podcast also explores the power of anchoring in negotiations, reframing mindset for successful negotiations, the evolutionary fear of rejection, and strategies to maximize influence while considering ethical implications.
35:55

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • We tend to underestimate the influence we have on others, leading us to hold back from asking for things because we wrongly assume we will be rejected.
  • Face-to-face requests are significantly more effective than email requests, yet many people underestimate the power of face-to-face communication in influencing others.

Deep dives

Underestimating our Influence

In the podcast episode, Vanessa explains that her research focuses on our misconceptions about influence and how we tend to underestimate the influence we have. She discusses her book, 'Do You Have More Influence Than You Think', which explores this phenomenon. Vanessa conducted studies where participants were asked to ask strangers for favors, such as filling out surveys or borrowing a cell phone. The results consistently showed that people underestimated how likely others were to say yes to their requests. This suggests that we often hold back from asking for things because we wrongly assume we will be rejected.

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