It is widely believed that 55% of all of the information in a presentation is visual, 38% vocal and only 7% the words. This is based on a scientific paper by Albert Mehrabian. Even we believed this. But this is not true!
The problem is that over time Mehrabian’s research has been misinterpreted and twisted to fit in to what people want to believe. In this presentation, Martin from CreativityWorks uses a cool animation to go back to the original research and bust the Mehrabian Myth.
18 August 2009
Filed under Presentations , Hints and Tips
Comments on: The Mehrabian Myth
thank you, this is great! I will share this site with students visiting mine. the clip was concise yet powerful~ content!
Posted by Char — 19 August 2009 @ 10:18 am
[...] Morton from Presentation Helper presents a neat cartoon clip exposing the The Mehrabian Myth and the importance of content. No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this [...]
Posted by And There is More — 19 August 2009 @ 11:12 am
You may have fallen into the trap of making the pendulum swing too far the other way! Mehrabian’s theory, insofar as it primarily relates to feelings and emotions, still holds good for presentations and discussions. I’ve seen too many excellently prepared presentations fail to hit the spot because the presenter did not grab the emotions of the audience. And we all know about death by PowerPoint!
Thanks for a great site – we recommend it to all our visitors.
Posted by Penny Reid — 17 September 2009 @ 4:37 pm
I think that while the most important thing in a presentation is the message itself, the packaging is what makes it work or not. I tend to be bored if the presenter is dull or if the visuals are flat or non-meaningfull to me.
I think that it’s like riding a bicycle, it’s all balance, balance, balance. A good presenter should believe in what he or she is saying, have a good knowledge on the matter, and know how to deliver it.
However, it’s a very good video.
Posted by Roberto — 6 January 2010 @ 5:04 pm
I’m a professional speaker, here’s my take. Words alone have no power. Add vocal variety, gestures, body language and silence……now you’re cooking.
Posted by Willie Jones — 30 January 2010 @ 10:27 am
I knew it! My gut always told me that this 7% ‘fact’ was not true but you finally gave me the true story to back this up.
Wonderful. Thanks for this. I’m going to write a blog post on this as we can’t let this myth propagate any longer.
Posted by Patti Pokorchak — 23 October 2010 @ 4:47 pm
Elegantly simple, entertaining and myth busting!
Posted by Sharon Eden — 31 December 2010 @ 3:16 pm
This is a well done video, thanks!
But there is a massive disconnect between the discussion of what Mehrabian really said, and your last section asserting that words are basically all that’s important.
If presentations are to be persuasive (and that is what they are for), then a presenter is talking about what he feels and believe.
And if his tone, face and words do not match, Mehrabian’s infamous formula still shows that he will fail with the audience – they will dislike him and dislike his message.
In other words, what counts is not words, face or tone, but the authenticity of all of these.
Cheers,
Adam
Posted by Adam Lawrence — 10 September 2011 @ 9:49 am
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