Nicholas Epley
Nicholas Epley on Gratitude Letters
Nicholas Epley
WSB Exclusive Speaker
Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Author
Nicholas Epley is reshaping how organizations think about human connection, showing why people consistently underestimate the value of real conversation and why that mistake matters so much for trust, wellbeing, engagement, and the high-performing cultures the future will require.
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Nicholas Epley's speaking fee: Under $25,000
Nicholas Epley is one of the world’s leading social psychologists studying how people understand one another, misunderstand one another, and too often hold back from the very interactions that would make our lives better. His research sits at the intersection of human behavior, communication, and culture, and it is landing at exactly the right moment for organizations trying to strengthen trust, collaboration, and belonging in workplaces that have become more hybrid, more digital, and in many cases, more disconnected. Nicholas helps audiences see that social connection is not a soft cultural extra. It is part of the human foundation that makes candor, wellbeing, engagement, innovation, and high performance possible.
In Mindwise, Epley showed how often people misread the thoughts, feelings, and reactions of others, and how those misunderstandings quietly distort relationships and decision-making. His new book, A Little More Social, takes that insight into one of the most urgent workplace challenges now facing leaders: people consistently underestimate how positively others respond to conversation, honesty, outreach, and real human engagement. As a result, they avoid the interactions that build trust, make feedback easier to hear, help relationships deepen, and create the conditions stronger teams need in order to thrive. Epley’s research shows that these same interactions are foundational to wellbeing, meaning, and purpose at work. For leaders, managers, and organizations across industries, that insight has immediate implications for culture, communication, performance, and the long-term health of the people who make them possible.
What makes Nicholas especially compelling on stage is not simply that the ideas are so important today. It is that he brings them to life in a way audiences can immediately experience for themselves. His keynote format is interactive, immersive, and emotionally resonant. Participants talk, reflect, predict, engage, and then see, in real time, how wrong their assumptions about conversation and connection often are. The lesson does not remain theoretical. It becomes felt, memorable, and immediately actionable. Nicholas offers audiences across industries a rare combination: serious intellectual substance, immediate business relevance, and a keynote experience that helps people understand not only what stronger cultures require, but why those behaviors matter enough to practice when they get back to work.
Why Audiences Will Be Better Off:
- They will better understand the hidden psychological barriers that weaken trust, culture, and performance. Epley shows why people so often misread one another, hesitate to reach out, avoid honest conversation, and underestimate how positively others will respond, even when stronger connection is exactly what our lives require.
- They will leave with a more practical framework for building stronger cultures. His work helps leaders think about connection not as a vague aspiration, but as a condition that supports candor, belonging, wellbeing, collaboration, and the kind of environment where people thrive and high performance can actually take hold.
- They will gain insight that is especially relevant for today’s hybrid, remote, and digitally saturated workplaces. Epley gives organizations a research-backed way to think about what happens when connection no longer occurs naturally, when people type instead of talk, and when younger talent and distributed teams need more intentional social design in order to build relationships and grow.
- Epley understands that people don’t think their way into feeling differently, they feel their way into thinking differently. Epley’s interactive format allows audiences feel in real time how and why better conversation, greater openness, and stronger connection produce better outcomes, which makes the lessons far more memorable and influential.
Featured Videos
Nicholas Epley
Nicholas Epley on Are People Social Enough?
Nicholas Epley
Nicholas Epley on Finding Empowerment by Opening Yourself Up to Others
Nicholas Epley
Nicholas Epley on How to Start Meaningful Conversations by Showing Interest
Nicholas Epley
Nicholas Epley on Gratitude Letters
Nicholas Epley’s Speech Topics
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A Little More Social: The Surprising Science of Human Connection at Work
In a time when many organizations are trying to rebuild trust, engagement, and culture, Nicholas Epley shows that one of our most common human mistakes is underestimating how positively others respond when we reach out, speak honestly, or engage in real conversation. Drawing on the ideas behind A Little More Social, this keynote reveals why people hold back from the very interactions that would make them feel more connected, more energized, and more effective, and why that hesitation carries real consequences at work. For leaders and teams across industries, Epley offers a compelling and highly interactive case for why social connection is not merely nice to have, but foundational to wellbeing, better collaboration, stronger culture, and higher performance.
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Why People Hold Back: The Hidden Barrier to Trust, Engagement, and High Performance
People do not avoid meaningful connection because they do not value it. They avoid it because they misjudge it. Epley’s research shows that people consistently underestimate how rewarding, productive, and relationship-building real conversation can be, and that mistake shapes everything from feedback and collaboration to trust and belonging. This keynote helps leaders understand why teams hold back from the interactions stronger organizations require, and shows how more intentional conversation can create the social conditions innovation, engagement, and performance depend on.
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Culture by Design: Creating the Conditions for Trust, Candor, and Innovation
The best organizations do not leave connection to chance. They design for it. In this highly relevant keynote for modern leaders, Nicholas Epley shows why meaningful interaction does not happen automatically, especially in hybrid, remote, and digitally saturated workplaces, and why leaders need to be more intentional about creating the conditions that help people connect, contribute, and grow. Audiences leave with a practical and research-backed framework for thinking about culture not as an abstract ideal, but as the human environment that makes wellbeing, stronger teamwork, safer candor, healthier relationships, and better business results possible.
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Mindwise at Work: Why We Misread One Another, and What Great Leaders Do About It
Long before today’s conversation about connection, Nicholas Epley built his reputation by studying a more fundamental human challenge: how we infer what other people think and feel, and how often we get it wrong. In this keynote, based on the core insights behind Mindwise, he shows how misunderstanding shapes leadership, collaboration, feedback, trust, and decision-making inside organizations. For business audiences across industries, the takeaway is powerful and practical: when leaders get better at recognizing the assumptions they make about others, they create better conversations, better cultures, and better decisions.
Works by Nicholas Epley
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