I just read this excellent article about the harm that might come from using put down humor at work, check it out here:
http://www.management-issues.com/2007/12/18/opinion/the-serious-side-of-put-down-humor.asp
Why do Powerful women treat less powerful women badly…Many years ago I moved to be near my best friend who was terminally ill. It was a difficult time. Before the move I had been teaching body language and other communication classes at Florida State and running a very successful speaking business. I loved my college students and they loved me. I know it was so, because they would write down every word I said in class (and you wonder why professors get big egos). Many would stay after class, visit me in my office for hours and stop for a hug when they would see me on campus. I had wonderful relationships with my clients as well. I was respected and paid a great deal to speak, and participants would stay after a seminar or speech to shake my hand or visit. If I ran into clients or past participants in the small college town of Tallahassee, I was usually given the same warm friendly response.
Then I moved to the big city, so that I would have the flexibility to run to the hospital for my best friend when I needed to. That first year I chose not to take speaking engagements out of town while he was ill and instead took receptionist jobs through a temporary agency. The pay cut was significant. Instead of $500 an hour I made $7.50 for answering the telephone. Strangely enough, it didn’t bother me that much. What did bother me was how people treated me nonverbally. Inevitably I was at a desk at the entrance to the main entrance of the business. A few weeks before my first temp job I had been smiled at, listened to and hugged by the people I worked for. Sitting behind the receptionist desk, wearing the same clothes that I had worn as a speaker, I was shunned - by the women.
Eric Wargo writes in the July 2006 Psychological Science, “A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments).
“Willis and Todorov conducted separate experiments to study judgments from facial appearance, each focusing on a different trait: attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness, and aggressiveness. Participants were shown photographs of unfamiliar faces for 100 milliseconds (1/10 of a second), 500 milliseconds (half a second), or 1,000 milliseconds (a full second), and were immediately asked to judge the faces for the trait in question (e.g., “Is this person competent?”). Response time was measured. Participants were then asked to rate their confidence in making their judgments.”
Study data showed that “Response times also revealed that participants made their judgments as quickly (if not more quickly) after seeing a face for 1/10 of a second as they did if given a longer glimpse. Longer exposure times did increase confidence in judgments…”
Of the five traits: attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness, and aggressiveness. Guess which one had the highest correlation to positive first impressions?
Trustworthiness. That doesn’t surprise me. In the last 20 years of surveying my audiences that has consisitently been the most important trait. Go to my website for more information and to sign up for my free newsletter.
In book Success Signals I talk about a study on gesturing and how it relates to learning, communication, and memory recall. I was re reading it recently as I watched tapes of the candidates for the History Channel Special I shot two weeks ago.
Dr. Susan Wagner Cook and Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow research on gesturing says that, “When people talk they give spontaneous gestures those gestures often reflect thoughts not expressed in their words.” So that there can be a mismatch between words and gestures. Mismatches’ are found when learners are on the verge of making progress on a task - when they are ready to learn. So when someone says they get but their hands slice downward it could mean I don’t really get. It is a very interesting read. Here are a few key learning’s that I gleaned:
- “Gesture is associated with learning”
- “The relationship between gesture and speech predicts readiness to learn”
- “The fact that gesture conveys information not found in speech paves the way for it to play its own role in communication.”
- “Gesturing lightens cognitive load” So when we gesture as we speak we can learn more, take on more information.
- “Gesture reflects thoughts that learners cannot yet express in speech” So speakers and teachers and parents and partners watch for the truth of gestures.
Interested in learning more…
- Dr. Susan Wagner Cook’s website, including a link to the study
- Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow’s website, including a link to an NPR radio interview, “Primate Gestures May Be Clue to Human Language” - Link to MSNBC and its recent review of the study. It is interesting to see how media repackages academic studies for public consumption - Link to a similar article those talks about “The Long-Neglected Sister of Language”
- Press release announcing the article — you can see another take on summarizing the article
- Compilation book with over 15 articles, “Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture (Approaches to Semiotics)” [links to Amazon.com]
A new study was just published in “Evolution and Human Behavior,” the official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. The study title, “Dominance and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice pitch” can be found in Volume 27, Issue 4, and Pages 283-296 (July 2006). In the abstract (full abstract below), you’ll find “In this study, we examine the relationships among voice pitch, dominance, and male mating success.”
At this point, you may be saying out loud or to yourself, huh, what does this have to do with business storytelling and business communications?
If I started with this description that a new study was just released titled, “Men raise vocal pitch when addressing physically dominant males,” I would bet that you would be interested then and it would make sense.
”Power red turned to powder blue not long after Bush took the Oval Office in 2001. For five of his State of the Union addresses, the President has worn a blue tie with a dark suit. He’s also favored the color for news conferences and state appearances over the years. Overall, blue is America’s favorite color, people associate it with (being steadfast and constant, always there, dependable,”
AP Photo President George W. Bush talks during a joint press conference with Egyptian President Hosing Mubarak, following their talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 16.
I have always wondered why Senator Hillary Clinton suits look like the rejects from a thrift shop.
Is she making a statement about the importance of recycling? I am especially intrigued to see when she chooses to wear yellow. Oh my god a yellow suit. The last time I saw a savvy women wear a yellow suit was on the 80’s TV show designing women! Hillary represents women…I just want to reach into the TV screen pull Hilary out and take her shopping a Loemans. Why does she sometimes choose a yellow suite? It could be because it is a great color to where when you’re feeling down. Yellow is color that stimulates our desires, promotes positively and prevents depression. Perhaps we should notice when Hilary chooses to wear that color. Perhaps she uses it to fight her blues. Hum do you think another reason school buses are yellow is to cheer up all those kids depressed to be on their way to the math test in Mrs. Hood’s class?) Because Yellow is a welcoming color, even the color of the pineapple put the entrances of colonial homes to show welcome) and a color that stimulates creativity and good communication it should be a great color for a candidate to wear to give a speech. Yep that cheery, optimistic, big bird color definitely catches our attention. But our eyes can’t rest on it. It’s an irritating color. McDonald’s uses it to get you in and then has it on the walls inside to irate you enough that you will leave and give room for more customers. Of course sometimes she wears red or blue. Red: red reflects energy, power and strength. Red is a very eye color catching and this makes it useful in case that you want to draw some attention to yourself. Red stimulates fast heartbeat and breathing so it could be an irritating color when it’s over used. It boosts physical energy. Blue When you wear blue you leave an impression that you are loyal and trust worthy. It’s recommended that you choose blue in political meetings and job interviews, because the interviewer may unconsciously trust you more.
Here is an addition to my yesterdays post “Why Men’s & Women’s Voices Are Different“
“Dominance and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice pitch,” Volume 27, Issue 4, Pages 283-296 (July 2006). Abstract Text:
“The developmental and anatomical causes of human voice sexual dimorphisms are known, but the evolutionary causes are not. Some evidence suggests a role of intersexual selection via female mate choice, but other evidence implicates male dominance competition. In this study, we examine the relationships among voice pitch, dominance, and male mating success. Males were audio recorded while participating in an unscripted dating-game scenario. Recordings were subsequently manipulated in voice pitch using computer software and then rated by groups of males for dominance. Results indicate that (1) a masculine, low-pitch voice increases ratings of men’s physical and social dominance, augmenting the former more than the latter; and (2) men who believe they are physically dominant to their competitor lower their voice pitch when addressing him, whereas men who believe they are less dominant raise it. We also found a non significant trend for men who speak at a lower pitch to report more sexual partners in the past year. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that male intrasexual competition was a salient selection pressure on the voices of ancestral males and contributed to human voice sexual dimorphism.”
When taping a special for the History Channel I was asked to discuss the voices of Obama, Margaret Thatcher and other political figures.
July issue of the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, could help explain why vocal pitch in men and women are so different.
“Men raise vocal pitch when addressing physically dominant males”, “A male dog will whine and beg in deference to a stronger dog, but will lower its voice into a guttural growl if it thinks it has a fighting chance. Men unconsciously do a similar thing, scientists say.”
“A new study finds that the lower the pitch of a man’s voice, the more physically dominant other men think he is. And men lower their voice pitch when addressing a man they believe to be less dominant than themselves, but raise it when speaking to someone they think is more dominant. The findings, detailed in the July issue of the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, could help explain why vocal pitch in men and women are so different.”
“111 male university students took part in what they thought was a competition against another guy for a date with an attractive female student. The participants were asked to rate social and physical dominance of themselves and a competitor…Men who rated themselves as more physically dominant than the competitor used a lower vocal pitch when responding to him, whereas men who rated themselves as less physically dominant tended to raise it.”
Study leader, David Puts of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and “his team think lower vocal pitch signals physical dominance more than it does social dominance, which in modern humans is typically achieved through skillful leadership and persuasion, not strength.”
“Social dominance has to do with things like intelligence and social skills, which aren’t necessarily related to body size or testosterone,” Puts explained. “Ancestrally, if pitch was related to dominance, it was first related to physical dominance before anything else.”
I will be posting more candidate reads on the blog. In the meantime type in your fav candidates name in the blog and see what’s there.
Last week I was speaking to a group from Merrill Lynch in Philadelphia and they were interested to know whether it was safe to touch their prospects during a sales call. I offered an example from my own work environment.
After a week on the road speaking I would come into the consulting office where I had my offices. Dressed casually, a big smile on my face I would greet the receptionist and anyone I saw in the halls with a hearty hello. I did not shake hands because that would have been bizarrely formal in our small office. And I didn’t hug anyone, even though I am a big hugger, because they would have thought I had gone off the deep end. But I did manage to touch just about everyone I saw without them even noticing it. I touched them lightly for just a fraction of a second on the forearm somewhere above the fingers and below the elbow. It was just a light touch lasting not more than a fraction of a second, yet each person responded positively leaning forward to talk, relaxing their bodies and smiling. This little touch made a big connection. It was just a simple touch in what I call the “Safe Zone” - the finger tips to the elbow has some of the same positive benefits as a handshake. Guys can touch other men higher on the arm, but the safe zone on women is below the elbow. Any higher on the arm and you are too close to the breasts, so the touch could be misconstrued as sexual.
How does John McCain use his voice and how does it contrast with Obama’s? When a speaker like McCain reads his speeches or gives lists of things, the voice often lowers in volume and becomes a monotone. He still has some variation but without the high highs and low lows of pitch and volume that give Obama such dramatic variability.
McCain’s body language is tight and restrained, which affects the voice by making it more tight and strained. That impression of constraint can definitely work for him as a conservative. To Republican voters it can symbolically suggest that he will stand his ground and not shift positions, just as Obama’s dramatic vocal changes and verbal messages of change appeal to those who want change. The quality and pitch of McCain’s voice suggest safety and stability.
Low volume and lack of vocal variation worked for Franklin Roosevelt in his Fireside Chats during the Depression and World War II because it made people feel safe.(Although Roosevelt was able to rally for dramatic effect like Winston Churchill when he needed to.) If there was a real threat of attack on US soil tomorrow, McCain’s vocal tone and style would be a great asset in his race for the presidency.
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