Are we wired to comply even when we don’t want to? Why is it so hard to speak up when we know something's wrong? An award-winning psychologist breaks down the forces that silence us and offers clear steps to turn intention into action.

Have you ever disagreed under your breath but gone along with something anyway? You're not alone. Whether it's pretending a terrible haircut is fine or freezing in the face of injustice, most of us find ourselves in situations where we want to act but don't.

In Defiance, Sunita Sah, MD, PhD, MBA explains why speaking up is so hard—and how to do it anyway. Drawing on her own experiences as a child of immigrants in the U.K. to working as a medical doctor and researcher, as well as unsettling stories of compliance like the Kentucky McDonald’s strip-search hoax, whistleblower case studies like Jeffrey Wigan’s exposure of big tobacco, and her original research, Dr. Sah delves deep into why compliance is a central force in our society. 

Though marginalized groups tend to face intense pressure to comply, Dr. Sah analyzes Rosa Parks’s pivotal act of defiance, dissecting the decades of smaller acts that prepared Parks for the one she is best known for.

Dr. Sah takes us through her groundbreaking research on the stages of defiance—from feelings of tension, to vocalization, to escalation, to threats of non-compliance, and finally to an open act of opposition—and equips readers with the tools to make decisions, both big and small, that align with their values. These everyday acts of consent or dissent ultimately add up to the society we live in.

A call to action from a scientist who speaks with authority, Defiance envisions a world where all are empowered to speak up, speak out, and demand change. We must transform the way we say yes—and we must be willing to say no.

Story Locale:The United States; the United Kingdom
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Sunita Sah, MD, PhD, MBA is an award-winning professor and organizational psychologist who has spent over a decade conducting groundbreaking research on advisor-advisee relationships, trust, conflicts of interest, disclosure, and compliance. She teaches business and healthcare students at Cornell University and Cambridge University and served as a commissioner on the National Commission of Forensic Science. A trained physician, Dr. Sah practiced medicine in the United Kingdom before embarking on her academic career. Her research has been published in top academic journals in management, medicine, economics, and psychology as well was The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American. She lives with her husband and son in New York.

Author Residence: Westchester, NY

Author Hometown: Bradford, England