Vanessa Van Edwards (born Vanessa Lynn Van Petten May 17, 1985) is an American author and speaker with Science of People. She specializes in science-based people skills.Marx Wheatley, Michaela. (2012-10-20). “Nationally-Renown Speaker to get Radical on Whidbey Parents.” South Whidbey Record. Retrieved October 3, 2014.Online Teaching’s the New Blogging O’Connell, A.J. (August 31, 2014). The Next Web. Retrieved October 3, 2014
Early life and education Vanessa Van Edwards was born Vanessa Lynn Van Petten on May 17, 1985 in Los Angeles, California. She attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she studied sociology, Chinese, and international relations.Radical Parenting: Youthologist Teaches CT Teens and Parents to Communicate. Mindell, Cindy (October 1, 2010). Jewish Ledger. Retrieved 2014.10.03
Career Van Edwards is lead investigator at her human behavior research lab, the Science of People. She conducts original research experiments on popular psychology and communication.
Van Edwards writes monthly columns for Entrepreneur Magazine and formerly used to for The Huffington Post. She is also a monthly guest on morning news show, AM Northwest. She has written for CNN, TIME, Forbes, and Fast Company.
Van Edwards teaches online courses about body language, facial expression, nonverbal communication and lie detection, all grounded in scientific research. Although lie detection is often associated with body language and facial expressions, research shows that humans perform only slightly above chance when attempting to detect deception. Reviews of the literature have found no reliable nonverbal indicators of deception.
Van Edwards has conducted a set of experiments on TED talks and presented her research at SXSW in March 2015. Her lab conducted research on the TV show Shark Tank and analyzed hand gestures in presidential inaugural addresses.
Books Van Edwards is the author of the book Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People (2017).
Her second book Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication released in 2022 and appeared on the bestseller list of The Wall Street Journal.
Van Edwards is the author of the books Human Lie Detection and Body Language 101,Van Edwards, Vanessa. Human Lie Detection and Body Language 101: Your Guide to Reading People's Nonverbal Behavior. N.p.: Create Space, 2013. Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People,Van Edwards, Vanessa. Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People. New York, 2017. and Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I'm GroundedVan Petten, Vanessa. Do I Get My Allowance before or after I'm Grounded?: Stop Fighting, Start Talking, and Get to Know Your Teen. New York: Plume, 2011. with Plume under her maiden name, Vanessa Van Petten. Her book Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication was released in March 2022.
Personal life Van Edwards married Scott Thornton Edwards in 2012. She lived in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter. She currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two daughters.
References
External links
Science of People