3: Working With Emotions
It's long been observed that incidents that give rise to strong emotions are recalled, in vivid detail, even decades after they occurred. Recent theory suggests that the release of dopamine that occurs during emotionally charged moments greatly aids in memory and information processing, such that we form very strong memories of such events.
We are very often strongly motivated by such memories. The author gives the example of a time that a professor he highly respected caught him cheating on an assignment, and the strong memory of that incident gave him "a deep desire to be truthful" and has made honesty a core value.
He looks to the example of the 9-11 tragedy in the United States, and speculates that the reaction of anger, fear, and contempt had a profound effect on millions of people, leading not only to some actions that would be unexpected of a free and peaceful nation (wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, the demolition of civil liberties of its own citizens).
Even in daily life, we are motivated by emotions. Fear of a burglary leads a person to invest in a home security system even if there is not history of burglaries in the area. Anxiety about job security causes people to work long hours at unchallenging and unfulfilling jobs. Most of the actions we take and the goals we set for ourselves are defined by emotions.
So emotions make events memorable and cause people to change their behavior: this is exactly what we wish to do when we deliver a speech.
Speeches that are unengaging and do not lead us to take action are boring and pointless - no-one wants to attend such a speech, and no-one really wants to give such a speech. What we want is to engage the audience and motivate them to take action - and this is exactly why emotions are the most critical part of speech.
Sidebars: Cinema and Music
Cinema provides a good example of this: when we see a scene in a film that moves us emotionally, we remember it for years. A film that engages us emotionally is a memorable experience, while a film that does not engage us emotionally is quickly forgotten.
Music is the same way: it is an emotional experience for the listener, though different listeners have different emotions, they generally align with the songwriter's intent. In this instance, the point to be taken is that a song that engages emotions rockets to the top of the charts, and one that does not fails to sell at all.
What Are Emotions?
People have a general understanding of the experience of emotions because they feel them every day - but that doesn't mean that they understand them, or are at all equipped with the knowledge of how to use them.
(EN: It's in the same sense that we "understand" an airplane because we have taken many flights. But that doesn't mean we fully grasp the physics of how an airplane works, nor does it give us the ability to build one, or even to pilot one.)
The author turns to the dictionary here, where emotion is defined as being a state of mind that arises due to circumstances, mood, and relationships with others, and suggests that these feelings are not derived from reasoning or knowledge.
(EN: That is a common misconception, though cognitive science has shown a very strong connection between reasoning, knowledge, and emotion.)
He then suggests that psychologists, whose profession is to work with human emotions, often disagree on the formal definition, and suggest that it is far too complex a phenomenon to be captured in a few words, and that even those who spend their lives dealing with emotions have only a vague knowledge of what they are.
Given that knowledge of emotions is so vast and at the same time so vague, it is likely impossible to become an expert in the intricacies of emotion - but that doesn't mean we should altogether abandon the topic, but instead seek to have a better level of understanding, even if it may be imperfect, to guide us.
Emotions Are Universal
Research has shown that people all over the world, irrespective of their education and culture, feel similar emotional states. What arouses their emotions will vary, as will the intensity of emotion they experience, but in general, they have the same emotions.
(EN: Darwin's "Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals" is likely the source that the author fails to name here - and what's worth noting is that this and other studies have been criticized for bias: the researcher does not truly know what the other person is feeling, but attempts to match their visible reactions to an emotion based on his own culture and experience. Which is to say that the belief that people have identical emotions is the result of the bias of the observer, who classifies emotions based on his understanding and will mischaracterize or misrepresent any emotion he witnesses that is unfamiliar to him into a known category.)
The author speaks to the emotion studies done at the Olympic games, which demonstrate that athletes from different cultures all have similar reactions in competition - they all feel elation in victory and anguish in defeat. They feel and express these emotions to different degrees, but the basics are the same.
The theory of emotions begins with evolution, and traces them back to the most primitive of roots: primitive man would hear a noise, interpret to mean danger, and experience the emotion of fear. This is still true of modern man, ant it is universal to all human beings - but again, culture and experience may lead us to differ in how we interpret stimuli and how we react to them emotionally.
The universality and specificity of emotions are important concepts for speakers. When a speech appeals to universal emotions, the speech has impact to a broad range of people (consider a speech delivered in ancient Greece can grip the emotions of modern Americans, in a vastly different culture, time, and language). In constructing such a speech, the use of universal emotion enables a speaker to be confident in his ability to anticipate and influence the emotions of his audience.
There's a brief mention of experimentation and refinement: when you craft a speech based on your own emotional reactions, you are assuming others feel the same - and that what you believe would work for you will work for others. It's a good practice to deliver the speech to a few others and ask them how they feel as they hear it, as a test. And a speaker who delivers the same speech to multiple audiences can revise his speech by the reaction of the audience, to refine and perfect his delivery.
Sidebar: Mirror Neurons
The author touches on the (controversial) theory of mirror neurons, which proposes that people can be provoked by others into having an emotional response. That is to say that when we notice another person is afraid, we feel a sense of fear, even if we are not aware of the reason that they are afraid.
This is important to speakers in two ways:
- The audience tends to mirror the emotion of the speaker. If the speaker is excited, the audience gets excited; if he is uncomfortable, the audience becomes uncomfortable.
- People in an audience take emotional cures from one another. If a speech does not move a person directly, he may still be influenced by the emotional expressions of others in the audience.
This theory substantiates the advice given to speakers to project positive emotions (though the emotions should align with his speech, which may not always be positively charged). It also means that the speaker needs to be sensitive to the majority of his audience, to have only a general sense rather than a universal one - those who are prone to emote will influence those who are not.
Sidebar: Not All Emotions Have Names
Emotions are only vaguely classified, and the author suggests that this is the reason people have trouble finding the right words to explain their feelings - there simply are no words to describe certain emotional states accurately.
(EN: That's partly correct. This phenomenon occurs when people aren't sure what they are feeling - it's not that they can't name it, but that they don't know what it is. Emotions, like thoughts, are nonverbal, and it is a separate cognitive process to describe sensations in language. So even if there are words for an emotional state, a person may not be able to evaluate or describe what they are feeling.)
He mentions languages that have multiple words that describe an emotion that has only one word in another (the Inuit have four different words for "lonely") or which have words for an emotional concept that do not exist in other languages (the term "Amae" which means the complete comfort in the company of another person).
Emotions are very subtle, too subtle for words, which is a reason that a speaker should explore them in more detail. Rather than trying merely to make an audience feel "happy" he should consider the context of the emotion - why should they feel happy and what degree of happiness they should have - to better craft his speech.
Moods Are Different From Emotions
A "mood" is a general feeling that lasts an extended period of time, whereas emotions are more specific feelings that last for a short period of time.
(EN: He presents a little detail from psychology, which is somewhat different from what I've read on the topic, but forgivably so as the boundary is a bit hazy in terms of the time. Less than an hour is emotion, more than a day is mood, but between is uncertain. Known source is emotion, unknown origin is mood, but when there is a cause that the person cannot identify it is uncertain.)
For a speaker, the distinction is important because he will be working with emotions, but he cannot alter moods - and they may interfere with his ability to manipulate emotions during the coruse of his speech.
When speaking to one person, you may be able to gauge their mood, but this is impossible to do accurately for an audience of any size. Knowing a bit of background can help gauge the mood - for example, if a member of a group recently passed away, or if employees recently survived a mass layoff, or if they work in an industry or firm that is struggling, then you can expect all of their moods to be similar.
(EN: It is much easier to gauge attitudes toward a topic, but this has more to do with logic and less with emotion, though some maintain that one drives the other.)
He also notes that some theorists draw a distinction between a feeling and a mood, but that he will continue to use those words interchangeably as the distinctions are not significant to speaking.
(EN: I don't entirely agree. A feeling is an immediate reaction that lasts seconds, an emotion is a temporary reaction that lasts minutes to hours, a mood lasts hours to days, and a trait for months. Feelings build emotions, emotions become moods, and moods become traits. And in that sense a speaker should consider how feelings intensify into emotions in constructing his speech - and should likely also consider how emotions elongate into moods and traits afterward because that will determine whether his speech has any long-term effects on behavior ... which is the goal of some speeches.)
Emotion and Temperament
The author uses the term "temperament" to mean the individual and idiosyncratic way in which a person may react to a given stimulus - noting that a person's temperament may lead them to react to something differently than would be expected.
Temperament is what makes working with people so difficult and unpredictable.
As with mood, it cannot be accurately gauged fro a long group - so the speaker must accept that some individuals will react differently to the rest of the group, and consider the most common emotional responses rather than these few unusual outliers.
(EN: Going back to what was said in the context of mirroring, people take their emotional cues from one another. So a person who feels sad about something that makes most of the others in the group laugh is likely to question whether he should be feeling sad rather than happy about it, and may even go along with the emotion of the crowd rather than following his own impulses.)
In a one-on-one conversation the influence of temperament is much greater and must be considered in planning and adapting your approach. A skilled speaker knows when to deviate from his original plan based on the reaction of a listener.
It is also important to consider temperament of key individuals - such as making a presentation to a small group of people in which there is one person of high rank (an executive or supervisor) as those in the group will mimic that person's reactions. In general, such a speech is like speaking to that one person with the rest of the group looking on.
Emotion and Personality Types
The author observes that people will different personalities will react differently to the same stimuli, then compares a few differences between extraverts and introverts as an example.
A basic difference is that extraverts have much lower cortical activity than introverts, which means that they require much stronger external stimuli to become emotionally engaged. A few implications for communication:
- If a stimulus is too subtle, extraverts will not respond whereas introverts will take the idea and run with it on their own.
- If a stimulus is intense or grandiose, extraverts will respond whereas introverts will become suspicious of your intent.
- Extraverts are more likely to go with the emotions of the crowd, whereas introverts will make their own decision on how to react
- Extraverts are easily bored by lack of external stimuli whereas introverts are easily annoyed by too much external stimuli
- Introverts will pick up on very low intensity signals (such as nonverbal) from others whereas extraverts will fail to recognize subtleties
- Introverts are more aware of their own emotional states and those of others than are extraverts
This also pertains to the character of a speaker: an introverted speaker will be subtle and low-intensity and will gauge the emotional cues of his audience, whereas and extraverted one will be very passionate and intense and largely ignore his audience's reaction.
Neither is better at speaking in general - though both are more effective in speaking to an audience who shares their personality trait if they follow their natural inclinations.
It's also important to remember that speech is a performance - a speaker who modifies his behavior to suit his audience is always more effective than one who does not.
(EN: What's missing here is the notion that "personality" is a collection of traits, that traits are extensions of mood, and that moods are extension of emotion - an in that way the task of the speaker is to make informed guesses about the personality of his listener to determine whether the emotions he intends to leverage correlate or conflict with the personality traits of his audience, and adapt accordingly.)
Emotional Display versus Emotion Itself
A distinction must be drawn between the emotion that is felt and the manner in which it is displayed.
His sense is that emotions are universal - everyone feels happiness, fear, anger, disgust, and the basic emotions are the same among all humanity and have been for thousands of years - but that the manner in which emotion is expressed differs according to specific culture and environment.
(EN: Another important point is that emotional displays are voluntary and may be concealed or faked, though the success in doing so depends on the degree to which the sender can imitate an emotional display convincingly.)
For example, consider that most Americans nod, moving the head up and down, to express an emotion of security arising from certainty and clarity, whereas Indians bobble the head, tilting it from one side to another, to express the very same emotion.
Another example deals with the degree to which emotions are expressed: the Japanese for example project a very stoic and stony appearance, regardless of the degree to which they are emotionally affected, because their culture discourages display of emotion. Where a westerner may raise their voice and gesticulate to let his anger be known, a Japanese man will speak in a level tone and restrain his display of emotions.
The manner in which emotion is displayed is a form of communication - of letting others know how we are feeling. These emotional displays are cultural norms and components of social etiquette, and are very much learned behavior. As such an emotion can be expressed in different manners and degrees in different cultures.
It is important, therefore, for a speaker to be aware of the customary emotional displays - so that the signals he intends to send are both appropriate and understandable, and so that he may accurately interpret the feedback from his audience. Misinterpretation of emotional cures can completely undermine the literal conversation.
The Basic Emotions
The author observes that a color printer can output a vast array of colors even though they have only four colors of ink (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) and a television screen likewise displays a broad array of colors in spite of having only three bulbs (red, green, blue).
Many psychologists believe a similar concept could explain emotions: that there are a few basic emotions that can be blended and used in varying degrees to present a far broader array of emotional states.
There is, however, great debate on what those emotional states happen to be. One theory (among many) maintains that the basic emotions are fear, anger, joy, sadness, trust, disgust, anticipation, and surprise. This basic palette is chosen because the emotions are high in survival value - and as such are expected to have evolved in primitive man and survived to the present day.
The author suggests it is useful for a speaker to use a multidimensional model of emotions when preparing a speech in order to have a clearer understanding of the way his audience is feeling, and the way in which their feelings will change over time.
For example, knowing that the audience is "anxious" and you want them to feel "hopeful" does not give you a clear direction for your speech to move them from one another. But knowing that you must decrease fear and increase trust at the same time as maintaining their anticipation gives you a clearer path to evolve the first emotion into the second without making mistakes along the way.
This will be discussed in greater detail throughout this book, as managing emotions is the core of the author's approach to speaking.
Soft and Hard Emotions
The author considers emotions such as joy, trust, and love to be "soft" emotions, which we can experience for long periods of time without experiencing a tiring effect. Harder emotions, such as mirth, begin to wear upon us after a short period of time - even the emotion of mirth becomes tiresome, which is why many stand-up comedians limit their shows to about an hour. The audience simply becomes tired of being mirthful.
Negative emotions such as fear, anger, and surprise are more familiar as hard emotions, as they are extreme and tend to hijack the brain, making it impossible to pay attention to anything else. These emotions are traditionally associated to danger responses, and place us in a heightened state of awareness for the short amount of time that is typically required to escape a dangerous situation.
It's also noted that survival emotions can be overwhelming, and bypass the cognitive circuitry to provoke automatic responses that, in arrears, can be seen to be entirely illogical.
Inexperienced speakers rely on the hard emotions far too often, and end up losing their audience, who react negatively to the speaker as the cause of unpleasant sensations. Even when they are "with" the speaker, they do not wish to be in a high-energy state.
People do not necessarily shy away from these emotions - attending sporting events or watching horror movies are often ways to arouse these base and extreme emotions, but they tend to be those that deliver short bursts of intense emotions with long pauses in-between. We may be able to tolerate a comedian who makes us laugh for half an hour, but there never has been an experience that delivers non-stop fear for a long period of time.
With that in mind, the speaker should be aware of their ability to leverage hard or soft emotions, each in the right quantities - particularly in refraining from relying too much on the hard emotions simply because they often seem easier to access.
Emotions and Memory
A traditional approach to enhancing memory is repetition, which is often used in memorizing a speech (practicing means repeating it over and over until it is ingrained) but is also used in the process of speaking: to repeat phrases or pieces of information so that they may stick in the mind of the audience.
The notion that "practice makes perfect is not without merit, but when a speaker relies too heavily on repetition as a method of "drilling in" his message, it becomes clumsy and the audience is turned off by the speaker.
An alternate approach to making information stick in the memory is associating it to emotions. It has long been recognized by psychologists that those who experience traumatic events remember them in vivid detail. And while it is not practical to attempt to traumatize an audience, lesser emotions can be useful in enhancing memory.
Magnetic brain scanning (fMRI) has been used to investigate activity of the brain while patients are experiencing various emotions - and there does seem to be correlation between emotion and memory, which has to do with the function of the amygdala: when a person is in a heightened emotional state, they are more observant, and their "filing system" for memories becomes more efficient and effective.
The author suggests that this is also what makes narratives and case studies so effective in teaching - the student can relate to a story by placing himself in the character of someone involved, become emotionally engaged, and have a better memory of the incidents described.
Flashbulb Memories
The author discusses "flashbulb" memories in a roundabout way. These are moments remembered out of context, though generally in relation to a specific event. For example, many older people can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news that John Kennedy had been assassinated, and most people have at least one shocking event in their personal lives that has frozen a moment in time that they can remember as clearly as a photograph.
At this point, he says only that flashbulm memory is "fascinating for speakers" and that they can be leveraged to make a memorable speech - then indicates he will discuss this more in a later chapter and drops the topic.
Emotions Produce Actions
A speaker's use of emotion has been recognized but poorly understood throughout history. Consider the plot formula common to many Hollywood films, in which a leader rallies supporters by a well-crafted speech: the officer who finds his men anxious about a battle, who stirs their emotions to get them in a state of heightened readiness is a thoroughly hackneyed plot device, but one which still resounds with audiences.
Human behavior is, in essence, motivated by emotion: jealousy motivates a compatriot to act to discredit a rival, desire motivates a young man to seek to gain the attention of a girl, and so on: people routinely change their habits or do things that are no usual for them in reaction to their emotions.
In other instances emotion influences our decisions. Marketing plays on this heavily, where products are more or less the same. A person whose core motivation is physical thirst may consider soda instead of juice, or even one brand of soda instead of another, because of the emotions they wish to achieve: drinking brand X makes him feel younger, sexier, and more masculine than drinking brand Y even though they taste exactly the same.
People spend a significant amount of income on purchasing branded items that make them feel like part of a group (particularly the desirable group of wealthy individuals) rather than generic items that would have been sufficient to serve their needs. Their car, their clothing, their cell phone, and other expensive purchases often reflect a need for esteem more than a need for function.
Consider that in many instances we second-guess ourselves at the last moment, particularly in the marketplace. We may take time in applying logic and reason to evaluating our needs and arrive at the store knowing exactly what we intend to purchase - and then during the sales encounter something catches our eye, and we decide to buy something else instead - regardless of all our objective analysis and logical assessment, we act on an emotional impulse.
Politics play heavily on emotions - and even in those as critical as US Presidential elections, many people can be motivated by irrelevant and irrational motives. Consider the hullabaloo over the questionable citizenship of Barack Obama in 2008 - this had nothing to do with his leadership ability, but played on people's inherent fear of foreigners - and while it may not have caused many people to change their vote, it is suspected that arousing these fears led many people to come to the polls who would not have participated without emotional engagement.
(EN: This may be where sustainability comes into play. Consider how long after a speech a person might take action - and whether the emotion conveyed might have worn off during that time. This is the reason tactics such as the one described above are often ramped up in the last few weeks or months before an election rather than disclosed long in advance.)
Speakers and Emotions
Emotion and its influence on thought, memory, and action should be of significant interest to speakers. It is, in fact, the reason that a speech should be made at all. If there is no need to engage the audience on an emotional, you might as well send a memo.
To speak is to engage with the emotions of the audience, to leverage their feelings to get them to remember what you have said, and in many instances to motivate them to take action in the way you have directed. Conversely, a speech that does not arouse emotions, that is quickly forgotten, and that does not encourage action is boring and pointless - a complete waste of time for speaker and audience alike.
The author uses the example of a "Don't Text and Drive" campaign. A brochure that explains the reasons that texting while driving is dangerous in a well-constructed logical argument does not have much of an impact, but a video that depicts the danger, plays on a sense of fear, engages the emotions in a way that the message has impact and people modify their behavior.
It is therefore important to a speaker to consider how he wants his audience to act, and determine the emotions that will lead them to take that action. If he identifies those emotions correctly and is able to arouse them with his speech, his audience is likely to be influenced even if the argument is not particularly well constructed.
Conclusions
Speech is not just writing read aloud - it is a thing unto itself. This should be well understood by anyone who wishes to be effective in speaking.
Written communication is dispassionate, and an effective piece of writing presents facts and information in a way that the reader appreciates the strength of the writer's logic, and comes to think that way as well.
Spoken communication is passionate, and in order to be effective it must appeal to the emotions of the audience in a way that the listener appreciates the strength of the speaker's feelings, and comes to feel that way as well.