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Four experts share their secrets for connecting better with audiences
Pick up any psychology textbook and turn to the pages on crowd mentality. You'll likely find references to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, the Oklahoma race riots of the 1920s and other violent incidents in human history when mass hysteria displaced individual reason. When an individual joins a crowd - be it a street mob or a corporate audience at a formal presentation - the person's "awareness of self" can disappear. The result of this psychological phenomenon varies with culture, setting and situation, but studies show that it can hinder personal judgment, quash social norms and dramatically increase peoples' suggestibility.
Though presenters rarely have to deal with hostile mobs, the implications of group psychology can affect the success of a presentation. Knowing how to read a crowd and use its peculiar dynamics to your advantage is a valuable skill.
Rather than exploring the psychology of the crowd from an abstract, academic viewpoint, we decided to investigate it through the lens of four veteran presenters. Scott Lee, Dianna Boober, Rob Sherman and Chris Widener have each stood in front of thousands of audiences and know intimately the mysterious temperament a crowd can take on. Here are their views on dealing with crowd mentality in a presentation setting.
Latitudes of acceptance
IT WAS A TYPICAL SEATTLE DAY - low, heavy clouds, off-and-on rain, slick, wet streets sloping toward Puget Sound. Scott Lee, a Kirkland, Wash.-based clinical psychologist who specializes in interpersonal communication, was walking toward the Port of Seattle Dock Workers Union Hall, on his way to one of the most dreaded presentations of his career.
The Dock Workers Union was on strike. There had been several months of debate and contract disagreement. The workers were under considerable stress, not having received a paycheck in weeks. People didn't have enough money to buy food for their families. Two of the workers had committed suicide.
"The day felt ominous and foreboding. Everyone was dressed darkly. The union meeting felt like a funeral," Lee recalls.
After a short talk given by a chaplain and a few words from the union representative, Lee was introduced as a psychologist who was an expert on stress.
The audience was restless and downright...