
On the importance of gestures in public speaking - mapagella
http://www.andrespagella.com/important-gestures-public-speaking
======
aggie
Gesticulation helps the speaker as well. A recent thesis (unpublished) in my
graduate program examined the effect of allowing a lecturer to move around and
gesticulate vs. sitting still at a microphone. There were positive effects
both in the viewer seeing the movement (not surprising) and, more
interestingly, the lecture recorded with movement was better (subjective
rating, comprehension) even when the viewer could not see the speaker.

~~~
DirtyMonkey
I ran a similar, although not so scientific experiment a few years ago. I
tried to pick up girls in clubs with and without gestures when I was talking
to them. This was over a one month period. The actual numbers are classified,
but gestures won.

~~~
cms07
I don't think 1 to 0 is really a reliable result.

------
guylhem
It reminds me of the "suggestions" given to Dwight in the Office (when has to
give a public presentation in S02E07), where he's given a video of Mussolini
as an example of a speaker with a great body language to emulate - so he does,
and it ends up with a wild cheer from his audience.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwights_Speech>

If you haven't seen it, you should - if only to look at the arms movement and
remember it's usually _not_ a good idea to look like a fascist dictator when
you give a public presentation in the real life!

~~~
mapagella
Hah, that's a good one! I haven't seen that one. That's exactly why I insist
in being careful on how you use gestures - they need to be very subtle,
otherwise you'll look, like you've just said, like a fascist dictator :)

~~~
guylhem
Indeed - the enthusiasm to use body gestures should be limited to a level
compatible with the audience.

As the author explained, it depends on the audience culture.

Suggesting a liberated use of body language to a hacker audience may result in
many Dwight-like performances...

(good tip - don't stroke the table with your fist closed)

------
furyofantares
Do you have an example of a talk by Zuckerberg that you find brilliant?

~~~
mapagella
Zuckerberg being a terrible speaker (2010):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hu3iG8B2g>

Zuckerberg being a brilliant speaker (2011):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OQQ4E2k0Mk>

Notice how he seems to be more confident and relaxed when he speaks. Unlike in
the AllThingsD interview, this time he uses pauses and gestures effectively as
well.

~~~
statusgraph
Just to be clear, that's not Zuckerberg for the first five minutes in the 2011
video.

------
smacktoward
I don't know if the important thing is gestures _per se_ so much as it is a
sense of the theatrical.

Actors are unique in the performing arts because they "play" two instruments
simultaneously. The first and most obvious one is their voice. But the second
is their body -- how they move, carry themselves, and relate physically to the
other people on stage. A great actor can take the same words another actor
just read and turn them into a completely different character, just by the way
they use their body.

When people think about public speaking they mostly focus on the voice, but
just like in acting the body is important too. The great speakers know how to
use the voice and the body together to reinforce the messages each sends to
the audience.

If you want to develop your skills with voice and body, acting classes can be
a great way to do that, as can training in improv.

~~~
cperciva
_Actors are unique in the performing arts because they "play" two instruments
simultaneously_

Opera singers are like theatre actors except they need to make music too.

~~~
icegreentea
Body language and gesture is also important in a wide variety of musical
performances. Especially since music, rhythm, dance, and body movement are all
so deeply intertwined. Perhaps actors and opera singers (which would also
include actors in musicals... sing, act, AND dance) might manifest these
traits more obviously, but body language is important to nearly all human
performance.

~~~
cperciva
As a musician (not a singer), I communicate with other musicians largely via
body language, but the audience is largely oblivious to it. Only another
musician -- and mostly just those who have played with me -- would understand
the difference between lifting my bow 1 cm or 2 cm off the strings of my
violin.

~~~
icegreentea
This is true, there certainly are many cases where the audience is oblivious.
But imagine the stereotypical rock/metal band playing. Their stance, how the
strut around, how they move, how their hair moves all effect how the audience
reacts to the performance.

~~~
cperciva
I generally count rock stars in the category of "celebrity actors", not
"musicians".

------
imurray
The videos at <http://videolectures.net/> often pick out a momentary dramatic
gesture for the thumbnail image. Out of context, they sometimes seem pretty
extreme.

I pulled out a selection here:
<http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/imurray2/tmp/vl_gestures.html> (I'm the last
one, I believe gesturing about orthogonal vectors during an intro to machine
learning.)

------
hkmurakami
One thing to be careful about, is that gesturing is something that requires
cultural context.

The Western cultures see gesturing as a positive thing, but Eastern cultures
(from what I've seen) seem to eschew such tendencies.

Blindly applying a "more gestures are better" kind of rule is likely to run
into issues eventually.

~~~
tagawa
Very true. Here in Japan I've been told my natural gestures when speaking
enthusiastically are at risk of being overbearing, so I've had to learn to
control them.

------
Snapps
Very interesting how you went on to note various speakers – specifically how
their speeches seemed so different sans gesticulation. Thanks for sharing.
(That must have taken a lot of time!)

------
ihategestures
I hate speakers who use gestures and other gimmicks. They make feel like I'm
being manipulated. Sometimes I'll close my eyes and try to focus only on
what's being said. Other times I'll just leave.

------
troels
Would be interesting to see scans of your notes.

------
doomrobo
Anyone notice "O' Sole Mio" in the background?

