Research to back up our “claims”

[Anonymous]

While facilitating The Skilled Presenter VILT last week one participant really harped during the “Attention Grabbers” & “Facts & Figures” sections that statements must be backed up with a source to be credible. He said if you don’t mention your source or your only source is “Google” then he completely discredits the speaker.

This was a valid point and made me question the “research” we throw out during SP and/or TF.

I did a little research on some of the quotes we use and found the following:
– “It takes 21 days of practice to learn a new skill” – nothing credible supports this and a lot contradicts this
– “Every 8 seconds your audience loses concentration on what you are saying” – Confirmed by Time Magazine via Microsoft studies. However, other studies show up to 15 minutes …
– “Recapping your 3 points at the end provides 80% higher retention rate” – Couldn’t find any articles backing this up
– “Public speaking is the #1 fear” – Confirmed by Psychology Today

Does anyone have other research to back up these statements and/or would you like to add to this list some of the “research” we quote during our TF presentations?

Thanks,
Tracy Graf

[Susan Gregory]

Hi Tracy,

Great points here and thanks for sharing the research you’ve found. I don’t have any sources for those missing pieces unfortunately.

I don’t tend to use the piece about 21 days to learn a new skill – as you’ve correctly identified there isn’t a strong source for this.

Also the point about “Recapping your 3 points at the end provides 80% higher retention rate”, I would tend to phrase it as “Recapping your points helps your audience to remember”, rather than citing a specific figure that we don’t have support for.

Thanks,
Susan

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much, Susan, for your thoughtful response. Those are both helpful suggestions.

[Author]

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