Why are So Many People Afraid of Public Speaking?

// June 21st, 2009 // Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Personal Development, Self Improvement

Why are So Many People Afraid of Public Speaking?

The aim of this post is to highlight the important facts of public speaking as well as giving useful advice on how to proceed with public speaking successfully. Basically, how to speak in public.

The book of lists (which is a book that lists all sorts of human behaviour) shows public speaking as our deepest number 1 fear. To put that into perspective, fear of death is number 7. This simple fact tells us a lot about public speaking and why so many people avoid it.

If you’re in the situation where you must address and audience, such as an incredibly important business conference or a simple quiz master duty at your local pub, it is important to understand how the audience handles information given to them.

I’m going to give you 3 points that’ll guide you through any future public speaking you may be preparing for.

1. Never tell an audience you feel nervous

This is a massive no-no! If you tell an audience that you feel nervous, they’ll start looking for nervous body language and guess what, they’ll find it. People don’t enjoy watching nervous people, it makes them feel nervous.

To combat this issue you have to do a very complicated thing. Don’t tell them you’re nervous. An audience will never suspect you’re nervous unless you tell them. So don’t tell them.

2. Use confidence gestures as you speak

Same principle as the first point, if you convey confidence by using confidence gestures you will be perceived as being confident. This is a fantastic point because even if you are terrified, if you act confident – you will be confident.

Examples of confidence gestures would be steeple gestures and open and closed palm positions. Also you want to avoid crossing your arms. If you cross your arms it sends the message that you are closed off and the audience will assume you are far from confident.

If you want to read up on these gestures further check out –

• The First Impression
• Getting Ahead in Business Tips
• Hidden Meaning of Gestures

3. Avoid Certain Gestures

There are some things you really should avoid when involved with public speaking, they are pointing at the audience, face touching and arm crossing from the previous point. Pointing at the audience would be a bad move since it puts people on the spot, which no-one likes. Face touching, if you’ve read the Hidden Meaning of Gestures can be an indicator of lying. You don’t want your audience to think you’re lying or holding back anything, so don’t fidget with your face.

How an audience sits

Studies show that people who sit in the front row learn and retain more than the others. This is because the people in the front are usually keener to learn compared to the rest of the audience since they show more attention to the speaker. When entering into a room where you’ll expected to be part of an audience knowing where to sit can be key, check out where to sit if you’d like to learn more.

What about the rest? Well the middle area is where all the question askers sit. The middle area is considered the ‘safe’ area since you’re surrounded by others, so people are more likely to get involved with a sense of security. The side and back areas are the least responsive and attentive, most likely, they don’t really want to be there. If you’re a lecturer, these are the fun ones to pick on with questions.

How you should stand

You may not have realised but where you stand does affect the audience in different ways. If you stand to the audience’s left, the right of the stage, your information will have a stronger effect on the right hemisphere of your audience’s brain. The right hemisphere is the emotional side in most people which means people are more likely to respond to emotional pleas and stories that involve emotion.

If you stand on the audience’s right, the left side of the stage, you impact the audiences left hemisphere. The left deals more with logic and will respond better to facts, figures and especially to humour. That’s why you’ll see audiences laughing longer when you use humour and stand on the left side of the stage. This is something comedians have known for decades, next time you watch stand-up – have a look.

Speaking to an audience will be much easier now that you know these key pieces of knowledge. If you’re preparing to do public speaking for the first time just remember to not say you’re nervous, show confidence gestures, don’t point or touch your face and make them laugh from the left and cry from the right. Have fun testing this information out.

Craig is a 22-year-old student currently studying psychology at Bournemouth University. He runs a self improvement blog and community filled with useful advice. His main aim is to help people exceed their expectations and reach their true potential.

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