Join us for an illuminating discussion as Sunita Sah, esteemed professor at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business and leading expert on trust, ethics, and decision-making, delves into the hidden psychological forces that compel us to comply with authority—even against our best interests. Drawing from her groundbreaking book, Defy, Sah uncovers how subtle influences shape our choices, from workplace pressures to medical decisions, and provides actionable strategies to resist undue influence and reclaim autonomy.
Moderating this engaging session is Alison Fragale, an organizational psychologist and professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Fragale, author of Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve, is widely recognized for her expertise in status, power, and negotiation.
Together, Sah and Fragale will explore how to challenge authority, trust our instincts, and make decisions with confidence and integrity. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain crucial insights from two leading experts in the fields of ethics and organizational behaviour. This event is hosted by the Behavioral Insights Student Group (BISG).
Sunita Sah’s research focuses on ethics, influence, and advice. Specific topics include trust, advisor-advisee relationships, conflicts of interest, institutional corruption, transparency, disclosure, improving decisions, influence, compliance, and defiance. In particular, Sah researches why we comply with bad advice and how disclosure policies can backfire. Using a multi-method approach of laboratory and field experiments as well as qualitative analysis and utilizing large real-world archival data sets, Sah incorporates organizational behavior, psychology, and behavioral economics theory to study different aspects of the advisor-advisee relationship.
Sah’s work has been published in top academic journals in management, science, medicine, law, economics, and psychology, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Internal Medicine, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science. Her work has also been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Nature, BBC News, Financial Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Boston Globe, and National Public Radio, as well as BBC World Television and national radio stations.
Sah recently served as a commissioner on the National Commission of Forensic Science and on the Human Factors Committee for the National Institute of Science and Technology Forensic Science Standards Board. She is currently on the advisory board of the American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services, the editorial board of the Behavioural Public Policy Journal, the advisory committee of The Productivity Institute, the scientific advisory board of the Behavioral Economics in Health Network, and an Officer at the International Behavioural Public Policy Association.
Sah has won best paper awards from the Academy of Management, Society of Business Ethics, Society of Judgment and Decision-Making, and Society of Personality and Social Psychology, as well as scholar awards from the Russell Sage Foundation, Harvard University, Kellogg School of Management, and the Medical Research Council.
Sah was previously the KPMG Professor of Management Studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK and held academic positions at Georgetown, Duke, and Harvard Universities in the United States. Before entering academia, Sah worked as a medical doctor for the UK’s National Health Service, subsequently becoming a senior consultant and European marketing director at IMS Health Consulting and then managing director [CEO] of Organisational Dynamics Ltd.
Sah holds a PhD and MS in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA with distinction from London Business School, an MB ChB (UK equivalent to the US MD) in medicine and surgery, and a BSc (Hons) in psychology from the University of Edinburgh.
