From what I’ve been reading online about audience connection recently, it appears that a genuine smile is far more powerful in public speeaking than I previously thought. Whenever I interact with a group or individual who appears unhappy or of dour disposition, I’ve always instinctively smiled at them simply to get them to relax and cheer up a little. This was always an intuitive response, and not a conscious public speaking strategy for audience connection. Little did I know that scientific studies have been conducted on the power of the smile. Please read the following excerpt, by Barbara Mikkelson:
Whether it is physically less exhausting to smile than to glower, is certainly beneficial, and thus there is something to this ancient exhortation to put aside negative emotions long enough to turn a frown upside down. In a 2002 study performed in Sweden, researchers confirmed what our grandmothers already knew: that people respond in kind to the facial expressions they encounter. Test subjects were shown photos of faces – some smiling and some frowning – and required to respond with their own smiles, frowns, and non-expressions as directed by those conducting the experiment. Researchers noted that while folks had an easy time frowning at what appeared to be frowning at them and smiling in reply to the photographed smiles, those being tested encountered difficulties when prompted to respond in an opposite manner to the expressions displayed in the images – they instinctively wanted to reflect what they’d been exposed to, answering smile for smile and frown for frown, and could not easily overcome this urge even when they were quite consciously trying to.
Because we humans are wired to instinctively respond like for like, facial expressions are contagious. When taken, the homily’s implied advice to put on a happy face does work to benefit society in that smiling people cause those around them to smile.
Yet smiling is not just good for the community in which the sad sack or grouch lives; it is also beneficial to the person doing the grinning. Facial expressions do not merely signal what one feels but actually contribute to that feeling. If we smile even when we don’t feel like it, our mood will elevate despite ourselves. Likewise, faking a frown brings on a sense of not much liking the world that day.
So, whenever you need to make that initial audience connection when engaging in public speaking, whether on video or to a live group, or don’t forget to break the ice with your listeners by giving them your very best smile.
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