Once we are all able to interact again, the PSI Conference will to Australia for the first time, showcasing Melbourne and our university to an elite international academic audience, and offering our university and business community the chance to interact with globally-known experts, authors, and TED speakers...
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PSI was launched for one reason—to connect researchers from different fields who share a common interest in power, status, and influence. These three topics have long captured the attention of academic scholars and continue to inspire empirical work across many disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, and biology). Much of this work examines the cognitive and social psychology of power and status dynamics present in diverse populations, ranging from investment bankers to Capuchin monkeys. Taken together, the insights drawn from this body of research are fundamental and its implications are far-reaching.
In her new book You Have More Influence Than You Think social psychologist Vanessa Bohns draws from her original research to illustrate why we fail to recognize the influence we have, and how that lack of awareness can lead us to miss opportunities or accidentally misuse our power. Whether attending a meeting, sharing a post online, or mustering the nerve to ask for a favor, we often assume our actions, input, and requests will be overlooked or rejected. Yet Bohns and her work demonstrate that people see us, listen to us, and agree to do things for us much more than we realize — for better, and worse. You Have More Influence Than You Think offers science-based strategies for observing the effect we have on others, reconsidering our fear of rejection, and even, sometimes, pulling back to use our influence less. It is a call to stop searching for ways to gain influence you don’t have and to start recognizing the influence you don’t realize you already have.