About Science of People
People Skills
Are a Science
The skills that build trust in a room are the same ones behind your health, your career, and your closest relationships. We make them learnable — backed by science.
Explore Our Training5M+
Students
800K+
Subscribers
250+
Companies
18
Languages
This Is Bigger Than Small Talk
Relationships shape how we live, work, heal, and age. Decades of research keep finding the same thing: people with stronger relationships do better — at work, in their health, over a lifetime. And relationships are built on skills you can learn.
2×
Career
The market reward for skills like teamwork and leadership has roughly doubled. The highest-paid skill stack is technical and social — one without the other is a ceiling.
29%
Health
Strong relationships track with healthier hearts and bodies. Weak ones carry real risk: poor social connection is linked to a 29% higher risk of heart disease.
50%
Longevity
Connection is one of the strongest predictors of a long life. Across 148 studies, people with strong relationships were 50% more likely to survive.
Sources: Edin et al. (2022); Valtorta et al. (2016); Holt-Lunstad, Smith & Layton (2010). Research links relationships to these outcomes — people skills are how you build them.
What We Do
Content
1,000+ science-backed articles, videos, and research on communication, body language, and people skills.
Training
From People School to coach certification — practical training for the conversations that shape your career and relationships.
Speaking
Custom keynotes and workshops delivered to Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and 250+ organizations.
Books
Two bestselling books translated into 18 languages — Captivate and Cues.
Our Story
In 2012, behavioral researcher Vanessa Van Edwards started Science of People with a thesis most people found counterintuitive: people skills aren't innate talent — they're science you can learn. The skills that shape our health, our careers, and our relationships were the ones no one was actually teaching.
What started as a research blog is now a platform used by 5M+ students in 100+ countries. 14+ years of behavioral science research have gone into the methodology — refined through original studies, two bestselling books, and millions of real-world interactions.
Vanessa's books Captivate and Cues have been translated into 18 languages. She teaches at Harvard and has been featured at SXSW, MIT, and Stanford, and in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, and Entrepreneur.
In the age of AI, your ability to communicate is your greatest investment.
Vanessa Van Edwards
Founder, Science of People
What's Next
We recently invested in CueShift, a social intelligence company building on our 14+ years of behavioral science research. CueShift turns our coaching methodology into software — personalized people skills training that meets you in the moment, whether you're preparing for a difficult conversation, a negotiation, or a first date.
The science of people skills has always been real. Now it scales.
Our Standards
Every one of our 1K+ articles is written, fact-checked, and regularly updated by our editorial team. We cite peer-reviewed research and clearly label personal experience — so you can trust the advice and make your own decisions.
Read Our Publishing PrinciplesAs Featured On
