Lost Hiker

How NOT to Lose your Audience in your Presentation

March 27, 2012 Dr. Michelle Mazur 2

Have you ever been hiking and the trail suddenly disappears? All of the sudden, you don’t know where you are going. You are lost! You have to struggle to find the trail to push forward or you have to turn back. Like hiking, when speaking the last thing you want is to get lost. Luckily by following some good hiking advice, your speech can keep the audience engaged and on the same happy trail as you.

Talk Dirty to Me: Researchers Urge Doctors and Patients to Discuss Sexual Health

March 26, 2012 coms 0

In spite of the strong link between sexual function and a person’s overall health, the subject is unlikely to come up in a doctor’s office. In fact, according to a new study, a majority of doctors skirt the issue entirely. Of those physicians who do attempt an assessment of their patients’ sexual function, most ask superficial questions that shed little light on issues that could signal underlying problems.

Dos and Don’ts of Twitter Credibility [Study]

March 25, 2012 coms 0

A new study from Carnegie Mellon took a look at how Twitter users determine whether or not a tweet is credible. They found that as people begin to rely more heavily upon search engines to locate relevant tweets from people they do not usually follow, they begin to be wary of trusting the content they encounter. The researchers culled their findings to come up with ways you can make your tweets more credible.

5 Tips for Communicating with a Robot

March 22, 2012 coms 0

Scientists say we are within a decade of creating personal robots capable of cleaning our homes, taking us on guided tours and caring for our grandparents in nursing facilities. However, computer scientists simply won’t be able to program every robot to do all the things we will want them to do. This means we’ll have to tell robots what do to and how to do it. How will we do that?

3 Nonverbal Hacks to Improve Your Credibility

March 19, 2012 coms 0

Credibility is everything. Newspapers that get the facts wrong are torn to shreds and politicians lacking experience don’t get elected, while people in lab coats command our respect immediately. Communication scholars define credibility as being the perception of one’s competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill. But as you probably know, perceptions can be hacked.

Deep-Voiced Politicians Favored by Voters [Study]

March 16, 2012 coms 0

According to a report published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, voters may naturally prefer politicians who have deeper voices. Biologists from Duke University collaborated with a political scientist from the University of Miami to determine voter preferences regarding the pitch of a candidate’s voice.

Matching Communicaton Styles to Patients’ Beliefs [Study]

March 15, 2012 coms 0

According to a new study by researchers at Penn State, what patients and their families believe about religion and genetics makes a difference in the way they react when told that they have a health problem. Roxanne Parrott, lead author of the study, explained that greater understanding of the different ways in which people react to being diagnosed with an illness helps professionals develop effective communication strategies.

Gen Y Women & the Workplace [Infographic]

March 13, 2012 coms 0

The following infographic by Accenture sums up the ways in which Generation Y women differ from women of earlier generations in the workplace and details the ways in which they resemble those who came before them. For example, the majority of young women expect to be treated equally in the workplace. However, they are still much less likely to ask a superior for a raise than men of the same age.

Learning to Distinguish Between Literal and Contextual Meaning [Study]

March 11, 2012 coms 0

When a speaker makes a truthful statement that implies an untruth, what do listeners hear? Are they able to see beyond the false implications and uncover the unvarnished truth? Can people divorce themselves from the context of a statement well enough to hear what is really being said, or do some words carry such strong implications that people cannot see past them?