Delivery > Content - The Dr Fox Lecture

[willpower]

http://www.weirdexperiments.com/apps/blog/show/8846691-the-legendary-dr-fox-lecture-footage-found-


In 1970 three American researchers, John E. Ware, Donald H. Naftulin and Frank A. Donnelly, designed an experiment to find out whether a brilliant delivery technique of a talk could so completely bamboozle a group of experts that they overlooked the fact that the content was nonsense. The result was the hilarious Dr Fox Lecture and the answer was: yes! The experts didn’t notice a thing. An actor delivered the lecture, unschooled on the nature of the actual material.

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

 

[Thomas]

Don't knock it. I rely on the Dr. Fox effect quite frequently.

 

[HgaleK]

That was awesome- thanks for the link!

 

[willpower]

Teaches a valuable lesson. Forget facts, it's all in the presentation.

 

[Thomas]



Teaches a valuable lesson. Forget facts, it's all in the presentation.

Well, you could say the same about women in general, marketers, and latter-day David Bowie.

But, to take it a step further along those lines, I think the speaker's introduction plays a part in terms of opening people's minds a bit. In this case the speaker's 'credentials' were laid out in respectable terms - which for some people tends to translate into "he knows more than you do, so listen and take notes!" It helps a bit more that the actor looked the part: thick glasses, a bit glib without being polished, referred to notes.

Furthermore, the jargon used tends to, well...obfuscate the matter being addressed and make it go down easier.

So, I think there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes that eased the audience into a state of numb compliance.

 

[Gibonius]



So, I think there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes that eased the audience into a state of numb compliance.

"Numb compliance" is a pretty good phrase to describe the feeling one gets after sitting though a couple dozen talks at the average conference.