Does Appearance Count that much?

[clearskies]

I guess the way you say it. Like maybe how fast or slow you talk and the pauses you take between words. Pace?

Maybe also who is saying it. If a special guest speaker is saying something, it might have a bigger impact than just some random person making the same speech.

That is what I am talking about, true... as an academic certified trainer in a certain field, I can confirm these are some of the main factors of a successful presentation... Let's go back to Antony speech in Julius Ceaser play... Remember how genius he was?

[Junket]

Most people will buy a painting based on the way it looks... but few, usually only artists, will know the craftsmanship, the skills, the materials, the thoughts, and everything it took to make it.

There's little other reason to buy a painting besides for how it looks.

[DoesntMatter]

I like for my eyes to rest upon a pair of well-shaped breasts

[Pears]

bottom line, if you are ugly then you are ugly. there's no changing that.

raverboy

Surgery?
____

[anachronistic]

Have you ever listened to Fake Plastic Trees, Pears?

[miSSleepy]

Does Appearance Count that much?

I would say YES . What would you say if you read the following quotations from a ppt I came across online?

'Books are judged by their covers'

They are

'Appearances count, not only in first impressions, but also in ongoing interactions. In his comprehensive research on communication, sociologist Albert Mehrabian found that in a face-to-face encounter, 7 percent of a verbal message comes from the words used; 38 percent comes from the vocal tone, pacing, and inflection; 55 PERCENT of the message is transmitted by the speaker’s appearance and body language.'

Is not 55 % too much for appearance & body language while 7% is too little for the words ?

No that's about right.

Yes, indeed. what you say is absolutely true. But I would like to let you know that this saying was talking about people who are giving presentation or a talk and not in normal day life.

Of course it's true in every day life! If people want to be successful in business/meetings etc they have to use strategies that that work with natural body language techniques.
It's why some people are said to be charismatic and popular while others are cold fish no matter what they day: the body language.

I agree with what you said but for the last part... 'Except for some guys that are like rocks, and don't seem to move a muscle when they speak. Then it's 100% the words that count.' I think less than 7% will count.

Huh? If you were talking to a guy who was like a rock and didn't move a muscle, basically a statue, and he was saying how much he loves you etc in a monotone voice, what would you think? Unless you knew him prior to statue-syndrome, you'd think he's being insincere, lacks character and is very boring. Hence you ARE judging him more on body language!

Tiny, subtle body language does influence us more than words, unless you're really unreceptive to it and have gullible tendencies. Women are better at receiving these signals than men, in general.

As for the OP, are you talking about body language and non-verbal signals, or the actual attractiveness of people? This thread is a mess.

EDIT: blueskies, I might have misunderstood the point you're trying to make in that last quote. If I have, ignore me!

[clearskies]

miSSleepy: thank you for your valuable comment... Actually, the main point of my thread, as I earlier mentioned, was about technical presentations and people whose jobs depend mainly on lectures, presentations, talks, etc like myself. But some member contributions have given it a more wide scope to include relationships as well. It is also welcome.

[clearskies]

By the way, I liked the photo up there of the ship... One of my neighbours was spending his weekends in painting a boat and it always parked in my front garden in NI.

[IndiReloaded]

CS, communication is important. Even in the sciences, where traditionally such issues have been (relatively) ignored. You can have the best idea or data in the world, but if you can't communicate it to someone else, it might as well not exist.

That said, I notice a disturbing trend towards 'dressing up' mediocre results. Ppl giving beautifully presented talks about, essentially nothing.

If you want to truly help your students, teach them to think critically about what they see & not to get too bogged down in the glitz & glam.

Cream & bullshit both float to the top. The trick is separating them.

[clearskies]

CS, communication is important. Even in the sciences, where traditionally such issues have been (relatively) ignored. You can have the best idea or data in the world, but if you can't communicate it to someone else, it might as well not exist.

That said, I notice a disturbing trend towards 'dressing up' mediocre results. Ppl giving beautifully presented talks about, essentially nothing.

If you want to truly help your students, teach them to think critically about what they see & not to get too bogged down in the glitz & glam.

Cream & bullshit both float to the top. The trick is separating them.

that is what I was looking for !! Excellent ... I do not agree that 55% of the presentation is about body language... I always thought that the words used and I mean by it the context and concepts to take more weight.
'Ppl giving beautifully presented talks about, essentially nothing.' : that is also absolutely right ... I see the one giving such presentation exaclty like a comic actor, he can attract u for a while but what remains with you after that .. Nothing..

[IndiReloaded]

Its a sign of the times, CS & the new tools that are available for such. Ppt presentations are now the norm in science; I remember talks with blackboards & overheads. There are still a few bastions of this type of talk out there (esp in hard sciences like math & physics) but they are increasingly rare & audiences don't seem to tolerate them well.

The trend has been to teach our students to become great presenters, to write sexy grant proposals, etc. b/c that is the expectation: that if they don't, they won't be competitive. Worse, if they don't they run the risk of *boring* or aggravating their audience or reviewer (who might not understand or give a favourable score).

Trouble is, of course, that now its trivial to create these Hollywood quality talks. Students regularly give talks full of bells & whistles that I wouldn't have had a clue how to do even 10 years ago. And, boy, do they SOUND confident!

But its often only surface deep. 'All sizzle, and no steak', to mutate a popular phrase.

Now, we need to teach our students to sift the crap from the cream. That's an entirely different skillset they'll need to develop.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnWKg9B2-8"]YouTube - ShiftHappens[/ame]

[miSSleepy]

By the way, I liked the photo up there of the ship... One of my neighbours was spending his weekends in painting a boat and it always parked in my front garden in NI.

Yeh, that ship is actually a coal ship washed up on an Australian beach (Nobby's Head, named after that landmark you see) after huge storms and flooding a year ago. It took so much effort and time to move it, they were afraid it would leak everywhere. It was like a tourist attraction for a while.




Anyway, Indi pointed out something I didn't really think about before. Now that I think about it, anything can be made to look credible and sophisticated using a ppt presentation, but if the content is decent i think it's just another medium, a more modern one. It certainly makes my unieversity lectures easier to follow.

[Mish]

Does Appearance Count that much?

I think not just apopearance, but everything counts that much. Intelligence, body language, the voice, the smell (definetly the smell), the chemistry, the values etc etc. All of these are genetical cues that communicate to us how right the individual is for us as a partner.

A lot of these cues we don't even pick up consciously. That's why we sometimes like certain people, but we don't really know why.

[anachronistic]

Appearance does include body language, intelligence, voice, and all that. It's the way you 'appear' to others.

I would say that appearance also depends on the way others perceive things - just the same way some people are blind to some colors, and some aren't. That's dependent on their experiences, the way they see themselves, the way they judge people, and their own appearance.

[Mish]

Appearance does include body language, intelligence, voice, and all that. It's the way you 'appear' to others.

Appearance has a number of definitions, I think the one that cleaskies was reffering to was more along the lines of "If you were a book, your appearance is only the cover".