Biography

Professor Sunita Sah is John and Norma Balen Sesquicentennial Fellow and assistant professor of management and organizations. Her research focus is on institutional corruption, ethical decision-making, bias, transparency, improving decisions, influence and advice–in particular how professionals who give advice alter their behavior as a result of conflicts of interest and disclosure policies. Using a multi-method approach of lab and field experiments as well as qualitative analysis and utilizing large real-world archival data sets, Dr. Sah incorporates organizational behavior, psychology, and behavioral economics theory to study different aspects of giving, and reacting to, biased or over-confident advice.

Dr. 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.

Dr. Sah's work has been published in top academic journals in management, science, medicine, 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.

In addition to her research work, Dr. 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. Dr. Sah is currently on the editorial board of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Dr. 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 Harvard University, Kellogg School of Management, and the Medical Research Council.

Prior to joining Cornell University, Dr. Sah held academic positions at Georgetown, Duke, and Harvard Universities. Before entering academe, Dr. Sah worked as a medical doctor for the UK's National Health Service, subsequently becoming senior consultant and European marketing director at IMS Health Consulting and then managing director [CEO] of Organisational Dynamics Ltd.

Selected Publications

• Rose, S.; Sah, Sunita; Dweik, R.; Schmidt, C.; Mercer, M.; Mitchum, K.; Karafa, K.; Robertson, C. "A randomized field experiment of patient responses to physician disclosures of industry conflicts of interest" Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (forthcoming).
• Sah, Sunita; Malaviya, Prashant; Thompson, Debora. "Conflict of Interest Disclosure as an Expertise Cue: Differential Effects of Automatic and Deliberative Processing" Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 147 (2018): 127-146
• Bell, S.; Sah, Sunita; Albright, T.; Gates, J.; Denton, B.; Casadevall, A. "A call for more science in forensic science" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115.18 (2018): 4541-4544
• Sah, Sunita. "Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure" A report to the Australian Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Commonwealth of Australia. (2018): 56pp
• Sah, Sunita. "Policy Solutions to Conflicts of Interest: The Value of Professional Norms" Behavioural Public Policy. 1.2 (2017): 177-189
• Wolf, Elizabeth; Lee, Jooa; Sah, Sunita; Brooks, Alison. "Managing Perceptions of Distress at Work: Reframing Emotion as Passion" Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 137.1 (2016): 1-12
• Sah, Sunita. "The Paradox of Disclosure" The New York Times. (2016)
• Sah, Sunita. "Investigations Before Examinations: "This Is How We Practice Medicine Here"" JAMA Internal Medicine. 175.3 (2015): 342-343
• Gunia, Brian; Barnes, Christopher; Sah, Sunita. "The Morality of Larks and Owls: Unethical Behavior Depends on Chronotype as Well as Time of Day" Psychological Science. 25.12 (2014): 2272-2274
• Sah, Sunita; Fugh-Berman, Adriane. "Physicians under the Influence: Social Psychology and Industry Marketing Strategies" Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. 41.3 (2013): 665-672

Awards and Honors

• Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar Fellowship (2019) Russell Sage Foundation
• Institute of Social Sciences Fellowship (2019) Cornell University
• Half-Century Club Faculty Research Fellowship (2019) Cornell University
• Best Paper Proceedings (2018) Academy of Management Conference
• Best Paper Proceedings (2017) Academy of Management Conference

Recent Courses

• NCCW 5040 - Managing and Leading in Organizations
• NBAE 6660 - Negotiations

Academic Degrees

• PhD Carnegie Mellon University, 2010
• MS Carnegie Mellon University, 2010
• MBA London Business School, 2005
• MBChB (MD) University of Edinburgh, 1997
• BS University of Edinburgh, 1994

In the News

November 09, 2018
Banks must curb conflicts of interest: banking royal commission paper

October 04, 2018
Doctors Like to Think Big Pharma Doesn’t Sway Them. It Does.

December 11, 2017
Would ratings system for advisors prompt better behavior? It helped food industry.