Public speaking for many people is a cause of stress and even panic. It seems to them that the audience observes every lack of behavior on the stage. This is how the “spotlight effect” works, formulated by scientists as a belief that a person is in the spotlight. In many ways, this effect is the reason that prevents people from speaking confidently in public.
Invisible Flaws
The research results show that speakers without speaker experience can pay more attention to how they look in the process of the report than to its content. Most of these speakers record flaws and shortcomings in their speeches, which the public may not even notice. This is how the “spotlight effect” works, when a person begins to imagine how he looks from the side due to stress and emotional overstrain. Obviously, strong excitement makes him especially critical of himself, without noticing the shortcomings of other speakers.
Self-restraint effect
Sociologists and psychologists point out the danger of the "spotlight effect" as a conditional limiter. People who could show their abilities and talents, including through public speaking, ultimately deny themselves such events because of previously negative experiences that reduce their motivation.
But is the factor of a false idea about the shortcomings in the speeches of inexperienced speakers so obvious? Of course, the excitement in itself makes them make mistakes, causing and uncertain behavior in principle. But it is important to correctly perceive such flaws. The audience treats them indulgently and immediately forgets after the speech is completed, without attaching the importance attached by the speaker himself. To confirm this fact, a series of speeches was held with intentional signs of failure. But even in such situations, the public either did not always notice the deliberate excitement of the speakers, or did not attach much importance to it.
What to do speakers?
First of all, the very recognition that a particular report or presentation is only one of many such acts that the public will observe will be required. And the responsibility that a typical inexperienced speaker confers on himself may well not correspond to his perception by the audience. Awareness of this fact will trigger a backward positive reaction. In particular, the degree of anxiety and anxiety will be reduced, which will eliminate the excitement during the speech, along with errors that are made only because of the anxiety state.