If you prefer video content over text, I explain this material with fun, musical examples in my YouTube video.
When you speak, the audience isn’t just paying attention to your words. Your tone of voice and nonverbal body language subliminally influence their understanding.
In this article I break down the psychological effect of emotion on judgement and decision-making.
What Not To Do
According to the appraisal-tendency framework of cognition, emotions reveal implicit goals, giving a glimpse into a speaker’s inner world and tendencies for action:1
- Anxiety, for example, reveals a perception of uncertainty and low sense of control. It motivates action that decreases risk.
- Sadness reveals a sense of loss and a desire to improve one’s circumstances.
- Anger, on the other hand, reveals a perception of certainty and feeling of high control. It motivates action to overcome the threat.
- Disgust reveals a sense of contamination, and desire to expel the contaminant.
Consider this text, for example, expressed with anger:
“They knew they didn’t want to work with me. Why? I’m humiliated. Then that turns to anger at the board. And it stings”
You infer the speaker feels certain they are right and the board is wrong. You predict they will take action to change the board’s mind. But what if there is a lot more nuance under the surface…
What To Do
Check out how Andrew Sykes, CEO of Habits at Work, delivers the same text:
“They knew they didn’t want to work with me. Why? I’m humiliated. Then that turns to anger at the board. And it stings”
You only need to watch about one minute from the video below to get a sense of Andrew’s technique.
Andrew delivers the words with the following emotions:
- [Resentment] “They knew they didn’t want to work with me”
- [Curiosity] “Why?”
- [Humiliation] “I’m humiliated”
- [Anger] “Then that turns to anger at the board”
- [Sadness] “And it stings”
And those nuances influence your interpretation: Andrew is not just “angry” at the perceived injustice, and hoping to get back at the board. He is also uncertain about their reasoning, and feels a sense of loss for his opportunity. He hopes he can improve his actions to avoid this setback in the future.
The precision in Andrew’s emotional nuance allows the audience to understand, connect, and empathize with him on a much deeper, human level.
Summary
When you speak, think about not only the words you want to say, but the emotions you want to deliver them with. Are you just frustrated? Or are you also disappointed, maybe even guilty? Like a great painter expresses colors precisely to match the atmosphere of a scene, great speakers express their emotions precisely to reveal goals, motivations, and values, giving the audience a more intimate appreciation of them and their material.
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