The Dr. Fox Effect!
Krishnakumar Ramanathan
Managing Director and Group CEO S & S Power | Acrastyle | Hamilton Research and Technology | At the intersection of Engineering and Management lie infinite possibilities!
The Dr. Fox Effect!
These articles explore Management and Leadership. They’re based on experiences, reading, & reflections. Views are personal. Sources are cited. Feedback is welcome!
Which is more important – the messenger or the message? This debate has raged on for many years. All of us like to believe that the message is more important, but in reality, we behave differently and give more importance to the messenger, as demonstrated in a 1970 study.
At the University of Southern California (School of Medicine), two speakers gave lectures to multiple classrooms of doctors on a topic unknown to them, Mathematical Game Theory. One was a genuine professor, and the other an actor Michael Fox. The professor delivered his lecture in a regular manner citing facts and numbers, while the actor delivered an impassioned and engaging speech full of rhetoric and jargon but having little substance. Not surprisingly, the doctors across multiple different classrooms, rated the actor as the better teacher. This lack of correlation between content coverage and rating, based on strong expressiveness of the speaker, came to be known as the Dr. Fox effect.
We have all seen the Dr. Fox effect play out in our professional environment – a person who has lesser knowledge but is able to speak with exaggerated confidence tends to be believed more easily than the knowledgeable person who cannot speak so well. What does this really mean for us as professionals, and for our organisations? How can we see through the Dr. Fox effect?
We must also step back and realise that there are some good aspects to the Dr. Fox effect - it is not completely wrong or bad. After all, we all enjoy a compelling message told well. And there is no harm in using some theatrics to deliver an impact – a moment of silence, modulating our voice to emphasise key points, engaging with the audience, focusing on body language and eye contact, using some humour, etc. If knowledgeable people use some of Dr. Fox’s methods, it will make academic and business presentations so much more interesting!
领英推荐
I hope you enjoyed reading this one and look forward to your feedback and thoughts as we build a conversation around this topic.
Warmest regards, Krishnakumar.
Image courtesy:
Reference Sources:
LinkedIn Top Voice |Project Manager -EPC Projects Management Experienced Professional with expertise in Project Management, Stake Holder Management, Order Management and Engineering with Customer Centric focus.
2 个月Great insights, Krishnakumar Ramanathan You've highlighted the importance of balancing substance with style, and the Dr. Fox Effect is a powerful reminder of how delivery can shape perception. Thanks for sharing these valuable takeaways for both professionals and presenters!
Promoting technologies in power sector that help deliver reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity | Ex Siemens | Ex Alstom | Ex Schneider | Ex Secure Meters l PEC Chandigarh | IIMC
2 个月I think the key is what you say in the beginning "two speakers gave lectures to multiple classrooms of doctors on a "topic unknown" to them"! So, if it's an audience that doesn't know the topic, the presenter can build his story with what works rather than what's correct because his audience is not aware of basics even keeping aside nuances. Taking a step back, I would even think what purpose would it serve, either for us or for the audience, presenting a topic to an audience who do not know about that...IMHO??
Chief Manager at Siemens
2 个月Wow! Very well explained . Many a examples ran through while reading the piece. Thanks for sharing
Expertise of 32 years in Power, Oil & Gas, Automation Industries in leadership and breaking the ground position in functions of Sales, Project Management, Operation
2 个月True Krishnakumar Ramanathan , we as an audience have couple of challenges (a) we beleive in our idol more than facts -That's why stars who have zero value to eco system of a product quality tend to be used by brands to promote products (b) we shoot the messenger most often while not decoding the content !! If content was the key we would never had politicians or actors !!
Accelerating businesses growth through strong CRM for key customer accounts | Promoting Digitalization in Electrical systems
2 个月Thanks KK Krishnakumar Ramanathan for another nicely articulated message. I think often people tend to villanize a good orator and try to take away the credit even for his deserved presentation skill (while looking for the content in message). Kudos for pointing out the essence of that skill as well. I belive the ‘Dr. Fox effect’ eventually fades out over a period of time as people by then know ‘the wolf (fox) in sheep’s clothing’. As ‘One can fool some people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but one can not fool all the people all the time.”