By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm:
I was recently working with an expert witness facing his first time in an American courtroom, armed with English as his third language. At the end of our conversation, I told him that I thought he would really enjoy it, and find it truly interesting. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was reframing the experience for that witness in the direction the research would recommend. By treating the testimony, not as something to be anxious or worried about, but as something to be interested in and even excited about, I may have been reducing that witness’s subjective feeling of stage fright. Based on a recent study (Brooks, 2013) published last month in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, that kind of reframing works not only to make the experience more tolerable and pleasant, but also to increase the effectiveness and the credibility of the communication. The study found that participants told to give themselves the message “I am excited” did better in public speeches and also on math tests, than those who gave themselves the message “I am calm.”
I always like it when research confirms my intuitions. In my many years of teaching public speaking, I used to tell my students about Johnny Carson’s claim that he was frightened just about every night before going on television in front of millions of people, and the few nights he wasn’t nervous tended to be the nights the monologue bombed. Apparently, effectiveness in communicating isn’t created, or even aided, by an absence of anxiety. Instead, that anxiety or, more generally, the energy that accompanies it — can be an important part of becoming prepared and successful. This changes the way we think about managing stage fright in legal presentations for witnesses, attorneys, and anyone else in trial. In this post, I take a look at both the research and offer a little practical advice for turning anxiety into energy for effective presentation.
The Research: Psyched is Better Than Calm
Alison Wood Brooks, an Assistant Professor in Harvard’s Business School, has conducted a number of studies focusing on the interplay between anxiety and performance. In her most recent study (Brooks, 2013), she asked 140 participants to prepare a speech. In getting ready for the speech, half were told to repeat the mantra “I am excited,” while the other half’s message was “I am calm.” The resulting speeches were then videotaped and analyzed by raters who were blind to the study’s conditions. As reported in Psyblog, “‘Excited’ people were more persuasive, competent, confident and persistent. Plus, they spoke for longer-presumably because they were enjoying it more.” She repeated the study, this time applying the same preparatory approach to a math test. Again, the ‘excited’ bested the ‘calm’ by eight percent.
For some, this might seem counterintuitive. After all, if stage fright is actually a surplus of nervous energy, then how can energy be the solution? The reason is that the physical symptoms of stage fright — the classic “flight or fight response” — are more easily reinterpreted than abolished. Anxious individuals are in a heightened state: Faster breathing, quicker pulse, greater oxygen saturation in the blood, and sweaty palms. Labeling those as “excitement” gives the speaker a feeling of greater control. “It really does pay to be positive,” Alison Wood Brooks explains, “and people should say they are excited. Even if they don’t believe it at first, saying ‘I’m excited’ out loud increases authentic feelings of excitement.”
Here are a few practical implications for speakers in court.
Prepare Mentally
The first step is to make sure you are sending the right mental messages. This applies in particular to witness preparation. There can be a natural tendency in those settings to focus on what the witness is doing wrong — after all, those are the behaviors that need to be fixed before they can cause a disaster in deposition or testimony. However, focusing on the negative can be counterproductive, and based on this research, it is easy to see why. The witness who internalizes the messages that “This is really tricky,” “You aren’t naturally good at this,” or “You are doing it wrong” can get themselves into a situation in which early cues, whether they come from the witness’s own physiology or from opposing counsel, can end up confirming and amplifying a poor performance. Faults need to be pointed out of course, constructively. But the best messages for the witness to leave with are, “You’re well prepared for this,” “You’re doing well,” and “It just might be interesting to boot.”
Prepare Physically
Even as it can be relabeled in a more productive direction, too much nervous energy can still translate into an anxious or fidgety witness. Jurors can sometimes interpret those fidgets in unfavorable ways, concluding not “He is nervous” but, instead, “He is dishonest” or “guilty” or “backed into a corner.” Because the symptoms of stage fright are essentially physical, it makes sense to prepare physically as well, and not just mentally. Follow a good exercise routine in the days leading up to testimony, and on the day of as well. Take a walk before you take the stand in order to clear your head and to work out some nervous energy. Be mindful of where you are and what you’re doing and, when it does come time to take the stand, move and gesture in ways that are minimal but meaningful.
Perform With Energy, Not Fear
One of the most important mindsets for public speaking is to locate that genuine interest in what you are doing. The case is important, your role in it is important, and there is a principle at stake. What is going on has everything to do with that content goal, and should only have a trivial relationship to your own personal performance. It isn’t about how well you do, it is about how well the fact finders get it. That step of being other- rather than self-centered is important. The witness ought to be excited, not because it is a chance to take a star turn and shine on the stand. Instead, the witness should be excited based on the unique opportunity that testimony presents for the audience to understand a critical point and an important perspective.
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Other Posts on Public Speaking:
- Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying
- Witnesses, Don’t Get Too Comfortable
- Practice Mentally
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Brooks, A. W. (2013). Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, December. URL: http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/a0035325
Image Credit: AJC1, Flickr Creative Commons