3.) Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it. (Choose a topic that has not already been covered in this weeks discussion).
One concept that I found rather intriguing was that "attractiveness" of a speaker makes a huge difference whether the audience will respond in a positive way.
McGuide divides attractiveness into four major dimensions: familiarity, similarity, physical attractiveness, and liking. A perfect example of this was when during the presidential campaign, political and psychological experts were saying that Obama's looks and likability played a major advantage over John McCain who looked rather dull and non-attractive to the younger audience.
This concept also shattered my longtime beliefs that repeating something often will get an audience bored and turned off. Robert Zajonc talks about mere-exposure hypothesis, which basically is an idea of "simple repeated exposure to a stimulus" results in an attraction. In other words, the more times something is exposed to an audience, the better chances of them liking or accepting it.
The findings also suggest that since it takes time for new ideas to get comfortable with the audience, it is better then to let know about it frequently so it gets embedded in their brain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hello Siral! I enjoyed reading your post for a number of different reasons. I liked how you brought in outside material to enhance your point.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Obama would have won the election without his physical attractiveness? This has been debated quite a bit with past presidents. Do you think with McCain's credentials and experience, that he would have won had the American public been exposed to radio versus television?