Vanessa Van Edwards

Founder & Lead Investigator, Science of People · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderauthorscientist@vvanedwards ↗LinkedIn ↗scienceofpeople.com/vanessa-van-edwards ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗

She studies nonverbal cues, vocal tone, and interpersonal dynamics to translate human behavior research into actionable communication frameworks. She is best known for creating courses like People School and writing the bestselling books Captivate and Cues.

39statements → 14claims → 14claims resolved → 50%fully supported → 3.97/5average certainty → 1.9/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 14said about them ↓

7 supported 3 partly supported 4 contradicted how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

14 assertions · 1 opinion · 23 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 14 are resolved. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Vanessa argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: 82% of human impressions are based on warmth and competence
“Research has shown that 82% of our impressions of people are based on two traits. Warmth and competence.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 18:27 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Van Edwards: A triple nod makes conversational partners speak 67% longer
“When you do a triple nod, research shows that I will speak 67% longer.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Dec 31, 2024 ▶ 28:09 Follow These 10 Steps to Completely Change Your Life in 2025 | BigDeal Wrapped

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
50% certainty 3
62% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Vanessa Van Edwards on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Vanessa Van Edwards said on BigDeal that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Van Edwards: Avoid romantic partners stuck in a victim self-narrative
“The last one is the one you want to watch out for, which is a victim self-narrative. A victim self-narrative starts like the hero. Challenges, mistakes, problems that they couldn't overcome. That no matter how hard they worked, They weren't able to change anyt…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 1:07:38 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: 82% of human impressions are based on warmth and competence
“Research has shown that 82% of our impressions of people are based on two traits. Warmth and competence.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 18:27 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Ambivalent 'frenemies' at work drain energy faster than toxic colleagues
“When we know someone is toxic or difficult, we are very clear in our head. We don't go to lunch with them. We don't need to catch up on the weekend. We know their strength and their skills, and that's what we go to them for. And then we create parameters aroun…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 39:36 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: 82% of first impressions depend on warmth and competence
“Research has shown that 82% of our impressions of people are based on two traits. Warmth and competence.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Dec 31, 2024 ▶ 27:24 Follow These 10 Steps to Completely Change Your Life in 2025 | BigDeal Wrapped
Assertion Contradicted
Van Edwards: A triple nod makes conversational partners speak 67% longer
“When you do a triple nod, research shows that I will speak 67% longer.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Dec 31, 2024 ▶ 28:09 Follow These 10 Steps to Completely Change Your Life in 2025 | BigDeal Wrapped
Insight
Van Edwards: Great Ideas Fail to Sell Without Proper Pitching
“And that is the problem, is I think a lot of business owners have amazing ideas, doesn't matter how good your idea is, if you don't know how to pitch it will not sell.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 4:41 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Investors Judge Trustworthiness Before Hearing a Pitch's Opening Line
“Here's a big mistake that people make when they're pitching. Pitching on stage, pitching on a video call, pitching to an investor, is they prep their pitch and not their first impression. But people decide how smart you are, how trustworthy you are, and if the…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 5:22 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Upward Inflection on Pricing Causes the Lowest Close Rates
“You ask your number. You're telling people, I don't really believe this number and neither should you. Those people have the lowest close, lowest, lowest close rates, the biggest pushback, and also people lack confidence in you.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 6:28 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Label Calendar Invites by Desired Behavior to Prime Attendees
“Call it what you want them to do in that meeting. You want a strategic meeting? Call it strategic goal setting meeting. Collaboration team session. Accountability call. That, that way every single time someone opens their calendar, they're literally being prim…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 11:26 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Extroverted leaders risk losing employees by violating introvert boundaries
“Extroverted leaders sometimes can actually turn off employees and lose them. If they push them out of their introvert boundaries.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 16:09 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Asking 'What do you do?' shuts down conversational engagement
“When you ask someone, what do you do? First of all, it's a social script. You just told their brain, go on autopilot. I'm going to ask the same boring questions as I always ask. And second, if someone is not defined by what they do, they are answering on autop…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 17:09 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: A triple nod causes conversation partners to speak 67% longer
“When you do a triple nod, research shows that I will speak 67% longer.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 19:11 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Opinion
Van Edwards: Casper Succeeded by Balancing Warmth and Competence in Marketing
“Casper mattresses is an interesting one. Like, they kind of took the mattress market by storm. And they could have had better mattresses, sure, but their marketing was a perfect blend of warmth and competence.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 21:25 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Important Emails and Landing Pages Must Blend Warmth and Competence
“And so when you're writing important emails, not all the emails, there should be a blend of both warmth and competence. Your LinkedIn profile should be a blend of warmth and competence. Your landing pages should be a blend of warmth and competence.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 22:51 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Competence without warmth makes audiences suspicious
“In fact, the research says, and this is a quote, competence without warmth leaves people feeling suspicious. People will be suspicious of your ideas and your numbers if you do not know how to add warmth cues, and that is what you are struggling with, is you kn…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 24:47 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Partly supported
Van Edwards: Wiseman Study Shows Product Demonstrators Sell More Making Clumsy Mistakes
“There's studies on this where Dr. Richard Wiseman had a model try to sell a blender in a mall, ok? A blender. And he did two trials of this experiment. One where she did a demo of the blender. Hi, good morning folks. We're going to demo this blender for you. S…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 29:00 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Partly supported
Van Edwards: Cornell study found four specific nonverbal cues trigger distrust
“I think Cornell found that there were four behaviors, non-verbal behaviors that trigger untrustworthiness, like make you not want to trust a person. Touching the face, or the hair is one of them. Touching the stomach rubbing your arms, and I believe lack of ey…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 30:54 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Never put introverted team members on the spot for collaboration
“Your introverts never put them on the spot for collaboration. That's an insult to them, right? If you want them to collaborate or share their idea, send them an email ahead of time and say, hey, tomorrow we're doing a strategy session. I'm gonna be talking abo…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 36:51 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Hiring people with matching core strengths creates operational conflict
“The mistake that people make when they hire is they hire people who have their A work, and then they hire the person, and then you both want the A work. You are better off hiring someone who is opposite to you. Their D work is your A work is their D work, or i…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 38:18 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: Study showed police with ambivalent coworkers take more sick days
“There's a study about this, so they did it with police officers, and they categorized everyone's relationships in this precinct, and they found that the officers who had more ambivalent relationships, like relationships with the coworkers, where they were like…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 40:11 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Contradicted
Van Edwards: Only 1 in 10 people can consciously activate upper cheek muscles
“Only one in 10 people can consciously activate these muscles up here.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 45:44 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Contradicted
Van Edwards: Gottman predicts divorce with 93.7% accuracy using silent video
“He can watch a video, a silent video of a couple, and predict with 93.7% accuracy if that couple will get divorced within 30 years.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 47:41 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Insight
Van Edwards: Contempt expressions often stem from confusion, not malice
“Sometimes people are contemptuous when they're confused. You get some people who are like, why don't I understand this? They're contemptuous about it. So sometimes just re-explaining it again, you don't see the contempt.”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 49:39 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards
Assertion Supported
Van Edwards: Princeton research shows default gender biases for warmth versus competence
“This is Dr. Susan Fisk's research from Princeton University. She found, she calls it the stereotype content model, which is that women, by default, are seen as higher in warmth and lower in competence. Men, by default, are seen as higher in competence and lowe…”
Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 ▶ 52:11 Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards

Show 15statements(15 left)

The other half of the tape: Vanessa Van Edwards's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 13 times in 4 episodes on BigDeal. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Codie Sanchez 11Nir Eyal 1Jefferson Fisher 1

Statements about Vanessa Van Edwards, by other people (1)

Assertion Supported
Sanchez: Slow Triple Nod Causes Conversation Partners to Speak 67% Longer
“A fun one is the slow triple nod, which is like this. The other person speaks 67% longer.”
Codie Sanchez Sep 29, 2025 ▶ 2:35 How To Speak Like A Top 1% CEO

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
008215320252026episodesmentions
02320252026episodes it came up in
0021.54320252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 12 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Follow These 10 Steps to Completely Change Your Life in 2025 | BigDeal Wrapped Dec 31, 2024 1m
Communication Expert: Master the Secret Art of Charisma & Influence | Vanessa Van Edwards Sep 17, 2024 1h 1m
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