New Books in Economics Sunita Sah, "Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes" (Random House, 2025)
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Apr 24, 2026 
Sunita Sah, a physician-turned-scholar studying why people comply and how to develop defiance. She recounts silence in medicine and defines insinuation anxiety. She presents defiance as a learnable skill with a five-stage framework. She contrasts costs of compliance versus speaking up and discusses leaders, parenting, and resisting algorithmic authority.
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Defiance Is A Trainable Practice
- Defiance is a learned practice, not an innate bravery trait.
- Dr. Sunita Sah says decades of research show people can train staged responses to act on values even when fearful.
Insinuation Anxiety Explains Silent Bystandering
- Insinuation anxiety explains why people avoid correcting others.
- Sah defines it as fear of signalling someone's incompetence, which silences nurses, co-pilots, and everyday customers.
Rosa Parks Followed Years Of Compliance
- Rosa Parks' famous defiant moment followed many prior acts of compliance.
- Sah notes each public act of defiance is often preceded by hundreds of quieter concessions.
