The Audience Will.

A Virtual Guide to Effective Public Communication.

By

Barry Alan Morris, Ph.D.

Introduction.

The audience member will . . . .
This phrase is rather like that "perception" picture of the woman ("The Boring Figure" W.E. Hill) who is either old or young depending on your point of view. I will post her, but only if you promise to muster the requisite "oohs" and "aahs" when your time to interact with this staple of Western education comes around. Far be it from me to ruin the opportunity for scores of Social Science professors to help hundreds of undergraduates completely misunderstand what this "perception" exercise represents.

Morris's First Debatable Truism: We often see what we are told to see, instead of what is there.

The apparent point the exercise claims to make is that two people can look at exactly the same image and draw completely different conclusions. The reality, though, is far different and far more instructive. To begin, the two people who looked at this image did not draw any conclusions; they merely chose between the two overt conclusions available them. While it is true that they may not have consciously perceived a "Choice" since the alternative was not readily noticable, the fact remains that the range of responses one would get is reducible to two--Old Woman and Young Woman. No one is going to see a cow. No one is going to see a horse (Although if you stare long enough at just the face, you can see India.). They are going to see Old Woman, or they are going to see Young Woman. The image gives sufficient instruction to defend against any other competing interpretations.

Morris's Second Debatable Truism: The fix is always in.

Just in case, the fix is in. Most people who employ this image actually use two similar but different pictures. The variable is the extended eyelash on the right side of the face. The instructor may gush that such a small detail could have such a fundamental effect on the viewer's perception. But while it may represent only a tiny percentage of the data in the image, it represents 100% of the data that defines the difference between the two. And, more to the point, as the mind struggles to make sense of the unfamiliar, it fragments the picture into smaller units. If the presence of the eyelash helps to define one key fragment as face vs. head--however small the detail is--its effect is profound. The people who put that detail there (or removed it--it's a chicken/egg kind of thing) knew that. In almost every context that humans encounter, other humans have built, rebuilt, or somehow reorganized that context to include information that will, for almost everyone, restrict the range of reactions the individual will recognize as possible to have.

Maybe So, But What Does Any of This Have to Do With Public Speaking?

It has this to do with Public Speaking. I am explaining the title of the text--The Audience Will.

First, the audience members each have wills of their own--that is a predisposition to act in their own best interests (This is basic public speaking, let's not go all Skinner here.). Those best interests are defined by the audience members' pre-existing expectations of what they will encounter when they encounter you. Your presentation will succeed only to the extent that you can either manage or create predispositions that are amenable to your ends. Hence, you must contend with the Audience Will.

Second, your best chance of success is rooted in a clear objective. As you will find out in the next section, a good public speaker's objective is always to exact some specific, definable CHANGE IN THE AUDIENCE MEMBERS. You will need to determine how the audience member will respond to what you say. That determination will take the form of a "Specific Speech Purpose." That specific speech purpose will begin with the words The Audience Will . . . .

To summarize, The Audience Will . . .if you do a good enough job of identifying and managing The Audience Will.

And you know, it isn't even hard. Let's get started!

P.S. I will occasionally stick in a dictionary link. This is the first of those occasions.

Dictionary!