OratorsOracle

You are (not) what you do?

The “fundamental attribution error” is one of the more serious biases – we all fall subject to it, most of the time. The theory behind it states that we assume that what we see a person doing right now, defines that person to us.

In other words, we attribute momentary action to the foundational disposition of the character – who that person is and is not, not the content of the situation – what the circumstances seem to demand from that person. Crudely put, this is why social psychology differentiates between dispositional traits and situational states. Sometimes, we do things because of who we are, but sometimes we do things, because of the situation, we find ourselves in.

Of course, like everything else in psychology, these can’t be completely separated – how you do a thing will always be affected by your character, and no matter how strong and well-defined a personality you have, a special situation can push you beyond your usual expression repertoire.

The fundamental attribution error works both for us and against us as speakers. Moments of eloquence, rhythmic flow and clarity of shared insights produce a sensation in the audience of your proficiency – as a person – because of the fundamental attribution error. When this happens, your perceived credibility increases and with that, audience patience and openness. A good place to be.

On the other hand, patches of uncertainty, self-corrections, undermining body language and noise, carries the risk of being perceived as unprepared, poorly skilled and unengaged – as a person. This allows for phones to come out, or even for people to leave. From this point on, you would be hard pressed not to internalize that feeling of inadequateness, creating and maintaining an obviously vicious cycle of self-doubt, insecure expression and bad audience feedback.

To get in front of a bias that is indeed very fundamental – from an evolutionary perspective, we have always needed to be able to draw quick conclusions about people, based on what we see – only the oldest tool in the box will help: Preparation. Unless you are gifted (and probably less than 5-10% of voluntary public speakers can be considered natural talents, so most of us are not), you will have to rehearse – and when you do, focus on that all-important beginning that will allow you to connect with your audience from the get-go. To know more about why, look up the “Primacy and Recency effects” online or have a look at the post on the serial positioning effect. To learn more about how, stay tuned...

(Image: Since the first modern Olympics, medals have been used as a way to carry past actions into the present and elicit the fundamental attribution error in beholders - "This person has the stamina and the talent to win, this person is a winner!". Actually, this medal is a participation medal from the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, honouring the effort and the skills it takes to even make it to the Olympics. And just maybe it was meant to constitute a bit of promotion work as well... For some reason, laurels were deemed out of fashion as a visible sign of honour, but the link to the heritage is portrayed on the medal itself. Image credit olympic-museum.de)

The Serial Positioning Effect

What we experience first and last in a situation, we remember far better than we remember anything in between. This is called the “Primacy” and the “Recency” effect, collectively coined by the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus as the “Serial Position Effect” back in 1885. (Did he meet Marty McFly?)

How we arrange our information has a big impact on how it is heard, accepted and not least, retained.

So when you plan your presentation, make sure that not only the first few moments are really well rehearsed, but also the last. Beginnings matter a lot. But so does endings!

Image: Copyright Universal Studios. From "Back to the Future 3", placed in 1885.

Another favorite is the 23rd of "24 ways to obliterate an otherwise great piece of information dumping":

"Just look at those slides!"

It’s so comforting to look at those beautiful slides you made, isn’t? And if you turn away from us, we will never know what it is you wanted us to know.

We won’t hear your valid points, we can’t see your dedication and we will quickly begin to wonder about that email or the next meeting.

So another classic way of killing attention and interest is just to
turn your back to us and keep looking at those beautiful slides.

Just look at them. Beautiful, right?

Photo: Iconicons

This is a fundamental "must-have" when connecting to an audience. When researchers test audibility with masked, clear-speaking presenters, just two dots on a neutral, featureless full-mask is enough to ensure that we can understand what is being said. But we need those dots - also called eyes. With no features at all on a full-mask, audibility was remarkably impaired at the same volume, with the same actor, from the same position.