SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the seems-to-be-appearance-over-substance dept.
For those wanting to be more charismatic, there is evidence that it is not such a magical, or imperceptible quality as it might first seem.
Most of it stems from the way we use words and how points are conveyed. For example, in one set of studies, Antonakis trained middle managers at a German company and MBA students to be perceived as more charismatic by using what he calls charismatic leadership tactics.
These are made up of nine core verbal tactics including metaphors, stories and anecdotes, contrasts, lists and rhetorical questions. Speakers should demonstrate moral conviction, share the sentiments of the audience they are targeting, set high expectations for themselves, and communicate confidence. Managers trained to use these tactics were rated as more competent, more trusted and able to influence others. MBA students who analysed recordings of themselves giving speeches, with these tactics in mind, ultimately gave new speeches that were rated as more charismatic.
“Margaret Thatcher was unbelievably charismatic because of her rhetoric and use of these tactics,” Antonakis says. Analysis of a speech the UK Prime Minister delivered to the Conservative Party Conference in 1980, known as ‘The lady’s not for turning’, highlighted her extensive use of many of these verbal tricks. Her speech was packed with metaphors, rhetorical questions, stories, contrasts, lists, and references to ambitious goals.
But it’s not just how you use words that is important. Body language, gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice contribute to emotional signalling too and should match the message you want to convey. “What you need to convey [is] the appropriate emotion to what you’re saying. You need to look credible so people will trust you, ” says Antonakis.
Top tips: shower, and ditch the Atari T-shirt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:55PM (10 children)
The problem is that you're trying to communicate with absolute retards who will believe almost anything someone says as long as they look 'professional'. This needs to change, and conforming to that makes you part of the problem. We need a decent education system, at the very least. Otherwise, people are going to continue to be fooled by slick advertising campaigns and other such nonsense. I fail to see how being a shallow idiot will fix this.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday November 07 2017, @03:43PM
I think the effectiveness boils down to, are they real or not real?
Unfortunately that requires some intelligence and social skills to determine, as well as being part of an audience with half a brain.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aclarke on Tuesday November 07 2017, @03:47PM (4 children)
It's not about being a "shallow idiot". I tried to make a point of the fact that honesty and genuinely believing one's message is important. This is the opposite of being shallow.
It's also not being an idiot to understand one's audience. I find it easier to understand someone when they're speaking clearly and not mumbling. That doesn't make me an "absolute retard". I've been around long enough to often (but not always) recognize when someone's trying to manipulate me, and I try to process the message more than the medium. However, if something is presented to me in a way that is difficult for me to parse in real time, more of my processing is going to translating the message vs. actually listening to it. It's similar to providing someone with a plate of lasagna vs. a pile of ingredients. Which one are most people more likely to eat?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:42PM (2 children)
I feel that GP isn't talking about your experience, personally, as an individual in the audience. GP is talking about how, invariably, the audience is a herd of idiots. You may be physically present there, but are you part of the herd? It's an emergent property of the audience. I'd call it emergent intelligence or collective intelligence, but I don't think "intelligence" is the correct word.
The collective consciousness of the audience herd is that of a herd of dumb animal. Human intelligence only works at the individual level; herd instincts remain unchanged from various predators who hunt in packs or various prey animals who graze in herds for protection. The speaker becomes a shepherd or the predator pack's alpha in that metaphor. (This is why betas cannot be effective speakers when rallying authoritarian followers as a predatory pack. They may make decent shepherds, however. I'm skirting the "beta cuck" idea in the dark enlightenment, but in a wolf pack, there are alphas, betas, and omegas. Humans aren't all that different, sociologically speaking, not even any more complex other than their versatility to switch between predatory pack and grazing herd.)
Unfortunately, most people look to the herd consciousness to formulate their opinion on the speaker's efficacy, and through that filter they interpret the message the speaker was trying to convey.
I feel there are some humans who are evolved beyond that, but they're (we're?) in the vast minority. Give it maybe 500,000 years, and we'll see whether humans evolve away from this trait of individual critical thinking and become nothing more than talking animals, or whether individual critical thinking is something that will be successful enough to carve out a biological niche. Don't be surprised if humans experience an event at some point in the next 200,000 years where these two evolutionary paths split apart.
(Well, I'll be somewhat surprised.... I'm not that optimistic.)
My personal feeling is that individual critical thinking is not a trait that will find a successful niche. Humans are very likely nothing more than talking animals, and individual critical thinking is an experimental trait that will be selected against. Note: my feeling here does not create some exemption for übermensch. There will be no super-men or morlocks. Just talking animals who construct dwellings, simple tools, and clothing, same as they were prior to whatever happened 12,000 years ago or so that created this experimental (and stingily distributed) trait of individual critical thinking.
Of course, I'll be long decayed by then, and I am incapable of reproduction (thus have no stake in the matter), so ultimately there are only so many fucks I can give about it.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 07 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)
Nailed it. A mob is a gestalt entity whose IQ is 110 minus the square root of the number of shoes in it, and whose capability for wise, rational thought decreases as the square of its size.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by infodragon on Tuesday November 07 2017, @06:12PM
In any sufficiently large crowd most are idiots.
Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:38PM
How about being a "khallow idiot"? Surely he's not shallow even though he doesn't understand the audience.
(Score: 3, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 07 2017, @05:40PM (3 children)
That is never going to change. We techies need to be skinwalkers, as it were; we need to emulate the subconscious signals these idiots pick up on, get in our places, and THEN do the actual work. It sucks, but the world is run by fucking morons. Always has been, always will be. This is double-hard for a woman, and triple-hard for one who's taller than the men she's interviewing with, so I don't expect to get much further than "technician and builder at a local mom'n'pop place" and always keep 2 jobs...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:33PM (2 children)
When I was a young man I was extremely fond of a very tall and very lovely goth woman. I kissed her on the cheek once (I had to stand on my toes) and she said that it was nice. But because I am not very tall, and other reasons, I didn't make my true feelings known. I felt very inferior to her. Men are weak. Everything you see is misplaced bravado.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:46PM (1 child)
"Men are weak."
Speak for yourself, you little pussywhipped bitch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @08:16PM
I'm also a madochist which is why I post these comments online because I love the trolls I get in return.