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by visural
4762 days ago
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I recently read "The Naked Ape" and a theory discussed there, is that public speaking is actually an acutely unnatural scenario which we are not well evolved to cope with. To stare at someone is generally a threatening gesture, certainly there are many social cues about when it is appropriate to maintain a fixed gaze, and if a stare is held to long or without reciprocal give-and-take then it is usually interpreted as threatening/aggressive. Now think about public speaking - 100's or 1000's of people all staring at you, the speaker, at the same time. It's no wonder this triggers a fear (or fight/flight) response in most people. It's also worth considering, in our distant primate past, we are used to communicating with only a handful of other people at a time, outside of the context of tribal warfare. I'd be interested if anyone has any more recent research / theories on this. |
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This is true for all public performance, though. Sure, in a football game, maybe it's just triggering all of their fight responses, but that doesn't explain the downtime between plays. Stage performers of every kind have to deal with this. And so on and so on.
I'm not suggesting that you can snap your fingers and lose your fear of public speaking: I'm saying that you can develop confidence. What's the point of a rehearsal, after all, other than to have something safe and ritualized that you can fall back on in case of wetting your pants? The things I'm suggesting aren't easy. They're quite demanding, in fact; you're not going to be able to get to know most audiences except vaguely and through repeated exposure.
> To stare at someone is generally a threatening gesture, certainly there are many social cues about when it is appropriate to maintain a fixed gaze, and if a stare is held to long or without reciprocal give-and-take then it is usually interpreted as threatening/aggressive.
There are ways to deal with this. My suggestion is essentially to learn how to break the ice. Give them reasons to laugh or applaud, which fills you up with positive emotion. Get them to talk to their neighbors, which breaks the staring effect. Focus and engage with random audience members throughout the talk. Pace, slowly, which is a posturing response.