Manipulation doesn’t always look dramatic or explosive. It could be a loaded comment in a meeting, a subtle guilt trip in an email, or a casual remark that leaves you questioning yourself long after the conversation ends.

What makes manipulators effective is their ability to influence how you feel. Research on social influence and coercive control shows that manipulators aim for emotional impact: the drop in your confidence, the spike in your anxiety, the moment you start defending instead of deciding.

In my decade advising Fortune 500 companies as a behavioral researcher, I’ve seen this pattern at every level: the person who controls the emotional tone often controls the direction of the interaction.

The most powerful response to a manipulator isn’t to confront them. This often backfires, triggering gaslighting, denial, or escalation. Here’s a simple strategy I teach to help you “CUT” through manipulation.

When your nervous system spikes, your thinking narrows and your behavior becomes easier to steer. Studies on emotional regulation show that staying physiologically calm preserves decision quality under pressure. Slow your breath. Lower your voice. Buy yourself a few seconds before responding.

Instead of reacting with:

• Snapping or raising your voice: “Why are you saying that? That’s not true!”
• Over-explaining or defending yourself: “Actually, I did do [X], and here’s why…”
• Appeasing or over-committing when it’s unreasonable: “Okay, I’ll handle it.”
• Getting defensive or anxious: internal panic, self-doubt, or visible agitation.

Try responding with:

• Neutral acknowledgment: “Noted.”
• Redirect to facts or agenda: “Let’s focus on the next step.”
• Brief, calm clarification if necessary: “I understood it differently; here’s what I did.”
• Pause and buy time: a slow breath, or a moment to compose your response before engaging.

By staying neutral in your responses, you remove the emotional fuel that manipulators rely on and shift the interaction back into your control.

Even when your heart is racing, how you show up matters. A relaxed posture, relaxed facial expression, and steady verbal pace signal that there’s nothing to hook into.

Research on status dynamics and dominance signaling shows that the least reactive person is often seen as the most powerful. Staying unfazed tells the manipulator: Your tactics aren’t working on me.

This is where most people slip. They explain, defend, justify, and try to be understood. But feeding the emotional layer is exactly what keeps manipulation alive. Instead, refocus on facts, boundaries, or the task at hand. Pay attention only to what you can control.

Together, these three moves cut off the oxygen from the interaction. You’re no longer a lever that can be pulled. Over time, that shifts the power in your favor.

The most powerful response is far more destabilizing to the manipulator’s strategy: emotional non-cooperation. Calmly, neutrally, and consistently refusing to feed the emotional leverage, you take away the fuel that sustains their behavior. When emotional leverage disappears, the manipulation often stops.

Shadé Zahrai is an award-winning peak performance educator, behavioral researcher, leadership strategist, and author of “Big Trust: Rewire Self-Doubt, Find Your Confidence, and Fuel Success.” Recognized as one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Most Impactful People, she supports leaders at some of the world’s biggest brands, including Microsoft, Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, and JPMorgan.

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Home prices are expected to rise by about 2.2% nationally in 2026, but some large U.S. cities — mostly in the Midwest and Northeast — could see prices climb much faster.

That’s according to a recent Realtor.com forecast, which projects “a more balanced” housing market as higher inventory slows overall price growth. Even so, the moderation isn’t expected to be evenly felt.

“The Midwest and Northeast have maintained strong demand despite the broader slowdown, largely due to persistent inventory scarcity,” Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, tells CNBC Make It.

While many markets in the South and West are seeing price growth flatten or turn negative as new construction adds supply, cities in the Midwest and Northeast have added fewer homes in recent years, which has helped kept prices moving higher, according to Realtor.com.

Here are the 11 large U.S. cities expected to see the biggest home-price increases in 2026:

1. Toledo, Ohio

• Expected 2026 price growth: 13.1%
• Median home price: $199,900

2. Syracuse, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 12.4%
• Median home price: $298,950

3. Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, Pennsylvania

• Expected 2026 price growth: 10.9%
• Median home price: $260,000

4. Rochester, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 10.3%
• Median home price: $256,900

5. Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, Connecticut

• Expected 2026 price growth: 9.5%
• Median home price: $429,000

6. Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, Maryland

• Expected 2026 price growth: 8.3%
• Median home price: $375,000

7. New Haven–Milford, Connecticut

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.7%
• Median home price: $439,000

8. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.7%
• Median home price: $342,899

9. Albany–Schenectady–Troy, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.5%
• Median home price: $419,900

10. Columbia, South Carolina

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.2%
• Median home price: $303,300

11. Milwaukee–Waukesha–West Allis, Wisconsin

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7%
• Median home price: $379,000

Realtor.com’s metro-level forecasts are based on its own listings data, along with local inventory levels, new construction activity, employment and income trends, and mortgage rate expectations.

What those projections show is that in markets where very little housing has been added, even modest demand is enough to keep prices rising — especially in smaller Midwest and Northeast cities. By contrast, in markets where construction has been heavier, home prices in some areas are expected to fall by as much as 10% in 2026.

The metros with the highest expected gains “have seen very limited new housing development, keeping supply tight,” says Jones. At the same time, most of these cities have home prices “well below national averages,” she says.

Overall, only three of the 11 cities on the list have median listing prices above the U.S. median of about $415,000 as of late 2025.

Toledo stands out in particular for its relative affordability. The city’s median home price of about $199,900 is well below Ohio’s statewide median of roughly $275,000, per Realtor’s data.

Another factor is proximity to larger urban hubs.

“In the Northeast, demand has remained elevated as buyers seek more affordable, commutable alternatives to large, high-cost metros, such as New York and Boston,” says Jones. “Because new construction has lagged in many of these older, built-out Northeastern markets, supply constraints remain acute, amplifying the price impact of even modest demand growth.”

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Certain people seem so effortlessly influential, they make you wonder if they were born with some magical quality. 

But after researching human behavior for 15 years, I have good news. Influence is a set of learnable actions, not a fixed personality trait. 

In my book, “Managing Up: How to Get What You Need From the People in Charge,” I break down how to build authority at work based on my experience advising thousands of top performers at companies like Google, Amazon, and JPMorgan. 

There are things you can do to be taken more seriously, get your ideas approved, and become someone leadership seeks out — even if you’re introverted, still working your way up the ladder, or new to your industry. 

Here are five of the most powerful behaviors you can start using right now — based on five different types of power — without turning into a manipulative jerk. 

When a meeting goes in circles, influential people step in and say, “We’ve covered the options. It seems like we’re leaning toward X, so we’ll get started on that. Sound good?” 

This is role power in action, using your authority to make decisions within your domain. Most people shy away from role power because they don’t want to appear controlling. But when everything is a committee decision, it creates more confusion. 

Try this: The next time someone raises an issue, don’t let it bounce around like a hot potato. Take charge and assign ownership, “I’ll coordinate with legal. Gerald, can you drive the marketing piece?” 

Influential people don’t hoard credit. They spread appreciation around early and often. 

This builds reward power, or your ability to give people something they want. When you make others feel seen, they go out of their way to help you succeed.

Try this: Each week, shout out a team member via email or team chat, or during a meeting. Don’t just say “the team did a good job,” personalize your praise and be specific. For example, “Pooja’s idea saved us 10 hours of developer time!” or, “Big shout out to Rafael for his analysis, which flagged this risk.”

You can be the smartest person in the room. But your knowledge means nothing if no one seeks out your input or respects your opinion enough to act on it. 

That’s the difference between expertise and expert power. Expertise is measured by your skill level, whereas expert power is about whether people trust your insight.

Try this: Lead with “what if” and “I wonder” statements followed by your experience to avoid coming off as a know-it-all. For example, “What if we tried adjusting the price? I’ve seen that work with similar products in the past,” or, “I wonder whether we’ve accounted for processing time since that’s added a two-week delay before.”

Even the nicest people have to enforce limits. When someone misses deadlines or violates the rules, influential people address it calmly and directly by using coercive power. 

This ability to punish people is the form of power you want to use the least, but sometimes it’s necessary to uphold standards and keep the culture safe. 

You can use this even without formal authority, as long as you’re in a situation where you’re responsible for an outcome, like running a meeting or leading a particular project. Context matters, though. You can hold peers accountable for being disruptive, but you’ll need to tread more carefully with a superior.

Try this: Name the pattern, state the impact, and set an expectation. This can sound like, “I noticed you talked over Carol twice yesterday. When people get cut off, they stop speaking up. Going forward, please let people finish their thoughts before jumping in.” 

What if you could gain power just from being who you are? This is referent power, which comes from people wanting to be associated with you because of your character and values. 

Influential people don’t treat relationships transactionally. When you make people feel seen and valued, they’re more likely to trust you, support your ideas, and want to work with you. 

Try this: When someone shares something personal, make a reminder and follow up on it. It takes 30 seconds to ask “How was your daughter’s recital?” or “Did the kitchen renovation go well?” But it creates deep rapport. 

The best part is that these behaviors compound. The more you use them, the more natural they become, and the more influence you build without even trying. 

Melody Wilding, LMSW is an executive coach, human behavior professor, and author of ”Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge.” Get her free training, 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader, here. 

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If you want to live longer and feel better, stop chasing food fads.

Every few months, a new “miracle” plan — keto, intermittent fasting, carnivore, raw — promises to fix everything. Most don’t. Even those that show modest benefits rarely deliver results worth the time, effort, and mental energy they demand.

As an Harvard-trained oncologist and world leader in health policy, I’ve spent decades researching what actually improves health outcomes. The answer to a longer life is so simple: Good nutrition is about building about habits you can sustain for years, not weeks.

While you should consult your physician before changing your diet, as individual needs vary, here are six nutrition myths I wish more people would let go of.

The average adult consumes nearly 500 calories a day from snacks, much of it from ultra-processed foods like chips, cookies and packaged desserts. These foods are engineered to encourage overeating.

In one study, participants eating ultra-processed foods consumed more calories and gained two pounds in just two weeks compared with those eating whole foods, even when calories were matched. These foods are also linked to higher all-cause mortality.

Not all snacks are harmful. Research shows that healthy snacks can improve overall diet quality. Nuts, fruit, yogurt, hummus and vegetables provide fiber, protein and healthy fats that promote fullness without blood sugar spikes.

Most Americans already consume enough protein. Recommended intake is roughly 0.75 to 1.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (about 45 to 70 grams for most women and 55 to 90 grams for most men).

Protein powders aren’t a solution either. In one analysis, two-thirds of tested protein powders contained unsafe levels of lead. There are exceptions:

• Adults over 60, who lose muscle mass with age, may benefit from about 1.2 g/kg
• Athletes or people recovering from illness may need up to 1.5 g/kg

For everyone else, whole-food sources (beans, lentils, yogurt, fish) are safer and more beneficial than supplements or excessive red meat.

Only about 7% of American adults meet recommended fiber intake, and that’s a serious problem.

High-fiber diets are linked to lower risk of colorectal cancer, reduced rates of Type 2 diabetes, and a 31% lower risk of death from coronary heart disease.

But fiber supplements aren’t a perfect shortcut. Most contain just one type of fiber and don’t replicate the complex, diverse fibers found in whole foods. Only a small fraction show meaningful clinical benefits.

Fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains remain the most effective way to support gut health.

Dairy consumption is associated with lower risk of Type 2 diabetes and improved growth in children — regardless of fat content.

The idea that higher-fat dairy causes weight gain isn’t supported by evidence. In fact, studies show children who consume whole-fat dairy have lower odds of overweight and obesity than those consuming low-fat versions. Adults show similar trends.

Fat content alone doesn’t determine health. Whole-fat dairy can fit into a balanced diet, especially when it replaces ultra-processed “low-fat” alternatives.

Choose the version you enjoy and can sustain.

For decades, Americans were told fat makes you fat. This has been proven wrong. Yet as dietary fat intake declined, obesity and diabetes rates surged.

Healthy fats are essential. Many calorie-dense foods — nuts, olive oil, full-fat dairy, even dark chocolate — are associated with less weight gain than processed grains and sugary snacks.

Liquid plant oils, especially extra-virgin olive oil, have strong evidence behind them. Even half a tablespoon per day has been associated with a 19% lower risk of death over nearly 30 years.

Fat isn’t the enemy. It’s the ultra-processed, low-fiber, high-sugar foods that drive weight gain and metabolic disease.

Many people believe an extra workout can cancel out unhealthy eating. Unfortunately, you can’t. There’s more than a grain of truth to the saying, “you are what you eat.”

A recent study found that humans burn roughly the same number of calories per day regardless of activity level. Exercise improves health, but it doesn’t provide the calorie “bonus” people expect. What and how much you eat is what moves the needle on weight.

That said, exercise is still essential. It improves sleep, mood, cognition, bone density and social connection. Walking, especially with other people, is one of the most effective and accessible forms.

Good nutrition is simply about designing a life where healthy choices are ones that are easy and that you stick to for years: whole foods like fruits, nuts, and vegetables, modest portions and meals shared with people you like.

Skip the detoxes. Keep the olive oil. And yes, sometimes eat your ice cream. 

Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is an oncologist, Vice Provost and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of “Eat Your Ice Cream: 6 Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.” Previously, he was chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Emanuel received his MD from Harvard Medical School.

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Many people think that getting someone to say “yes” is about persuasion, making the perfect argument, choosing the right words, or asking nicely.

But decades of research suggest something counterintuitive: One of the most reliable ways to get to a “yes,” is to give the other person permission to say “no.”

Studies have shown that across all kinds of situations, from marketing to negotiations to everyday requests, simply adding a line like, “but you are free to accept or refuse,” makes people far more likely to comply.

It taps into one of our deepest psychological needs: autonomy. When people feel pressured, they resist. But when they feel they have a choice, they tend to engage more willingly and push back less.

I’ve spent the past decade advising Fortune 500 companies as an educator and behavioral researcher, and I’ve seen this principle outperform the hard-sell. Here are four simple phrases you can use to put this principle into practice.

When you explicitly tell someone they don’t have to agree, it immediately lowers defensiveness. Their nervous system relaxes, and the decision shifts from compliance under pressure to a choice made voluntarily.

When to use it at work:

• Asking for time from a busy senior leader
• Requesting help from a colleague
• Asking for participation

When to use it at home:

• Asking for emotional availability
• Raising a sensitive topic
• Making plans when the other person is stretched

Examples:

• “Would you be open to reviewing this for me today? You’re free to say no.”
• “You’re totally free to say no — would you be open to talking later tonight?”

This phrase reduces social pressure, which is a hidden driver of resentment and avoidance. Research shows that people push back when they feel expected or pressured to do something. Even cooperative people can resist when a request feels like an obligation.

When to use it at work:

• Asking for favors across teams
• Asking someone to do more than what’s in their job description 
• Following up on something that isn’t mandatory

When to use it at home:

• Asking for support
• Making requests that could inconvenience the other person
• Discussing emotional needs

Examples:

• “I’d really appreciate it if you could help with the report I need to prepare by tomorrow, but please don’t feel obliged.”
• “I could use your support this weekend, but please don’t feel obliged.”

This phrase is particularly effective in moments when you are on a clock, or a performance evaluation is a factor. 

When people feel they are being rushed into agreement, they make worse decisions, then regret them more afterwards. Removing that pressure improves satisfaction with the outcome.

When to use it at work:

• Setting deadlines that are flexible
• Making decisions that require some reflection
• Having sensitive career conversations

When to use it at home:

• Having relationship discussions
• Making parenting decisions
• Making big financial or life choices

Examples:

• “No pressure at all. Take your time thinking about it, and we can talk whenever you’re ready.”
• “If you’re open to it, I’d love your input this week, but no pressure.”

This phrase protects both the mental and emotional bandwidth of the recipient. Feeling obligated to respond, even to small messages, creates low-level stress. Removing that expectation reduces avoidance and increases genuine engagement.

When to use it at work:

• Sharing optional resources
• Sending reflections instead of action items
• Providing information without requiring feedback

When to use it at home:

• Checking in on someone going through a hard time 
• Sharing thoughts without requiring immediate dialogue
• Giving someone space

For example:

• “I wanted to share this just in case it’s useful. No need to reply!”
• “No need to reply. I was just thinking of you.”

These phrases all offer a sense of autonomy the exact moment it is most likely to feel threatened. In return, the people you engage with will follow through more reliably, feel more respected, and respond with more honesty.

Shadé Zahrai is an award-winning peak performance educator, behavioral researcher, and leadership strategist to Fortune 500 companies. She is the author of “Big Trust: Rewire Self-Doubt, Find Your Confidence, and Fuel Success.” She earned her doctorate from Monash University. Follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future.