How Highly Effective People Speak

Introduction

How Highly Effective People Speak is a book that teaches you how to talk better and persuade others. It says that you should talk in a way that matches how people think and feel. To do this, you need to know some things about how people make decisions. The book tells you stories and examples from history to help you learn the ideas and methods to improve your own talking skills.

Some famous people who were very good at talking and changing the world are Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Winston Churchill. You might think that they were born with this talent, but that’s not true.

Anyone can learn how to talk well and confidently. The secret is to know how people listen and react to what you say. You need to understand the shortcuts and tricks that people use to process information and make choices. These are called cognitive biases, and there are many of them. The book explains nine of them, but we will only look at five here: the availability bias, the contrast effect, the zero-risk bias, the halo effect, and attribute substitution.

For each cognitive bias, we will tell you what it means, how it affects your talking and listening, and how you can use it to your advantage. We will also show you some examples from real life where these biases were used effectively by famous speakers, no matter what their politics were.

If you can learn and use all nine cognitive biases, you will be a very powerful and successful speaker. But even if you can only use one of them well, you will still be better than most people.

Bias 1: The availability bias

Let’s say two people are asked, “How often do sharks attack people?” Both of them try to remember what they know about this topic.

The first one thinks of a scary news story they saw about a shark attack. They say, “Shark attacks are very common.” The second one doesn’t remember anything like that. They say, “Shark attacks are very rare.” Both of them trust their own memories, but only one of them is right according to the facts.

This happens because we give more importance to information that is easy to remember. This is called the availability bias.

The availability bias means that sometimes we forget or ignore the facts, even if we have learned them before. Instead, we use one example that we can remember quickly, even if it is not very good or typical.

So, how can we use this to talk better and influence others?

We can use the availability bias to make our message more memorable. It is good to have facts to back up what we say, but they are not enough if people can’t remember them later. We need to make our message stick in their minds.

One way to do this is to tell stories that are visual and emotional.

Stories have many parts, but the most important ones are characters and drama. If we can make our message about a good person and a bad person, or a problem and a solution, we should do it. People can easily imagine and relate to this kind of story. We should also make our message exciting and emotional, so that people care about what we say. This is what the ancient philosopher Aristotle called pathos, or the emotional appeal of a message.

To go back to the first example, if we want to convince people that shark attacks are dangerous and common, we should tell them a story about a person who was attacked by a shark, and describe what happened in a vivid and emotional way. This will be more persuasive than just giving them a bunch of numbers and statistics. The availability bias means that people remember what is easy to remember, not what is true.

Bias 2: The contrast effect

Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech called “A Time for Choosing”. He said that people have to choose between two different ways of living. He said there is no left or right, only up or down. He said up means freedom and order, and down means dictatorship and slavery. He said this to make his point stronger and clearer.

This is called the contrast effect. It means that we see things differently when we compare them to something else. For example, black looks darker next to white than by itself.

You might not like Reagan or what he said, but you have to admit that he was good at using the contrast effect in his speech.

You can use the contrast effect too, when you want to make your message more powerful and convincing. You can do this by using opposite words, like Reagan did. He used up and down, freedom and slavery. Another example is John F. Kennedy, who used easy and hard when he said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” If you watch any political debate, you will see this technique used a lot.

Another way to use the contrast effect is to show different choices to your audience. If you only tell them one option, they might not trust you or believe you. But if you tell them more options, and show them why your option is the best, they will feel more free and smart to agree with you. For example, people will choose Reagan’s freedom over dictatorship, if those are the only choices.

But be careful, the contrast effect can be used for good or bad. So you should use it for good, and help others do the same.

Bias 3: The zero-risk bias

Let’s say you have two choices to invest your money: choice one gives you $900 for sure; choice two gives you $1,100 but only 90 percent of the time.

Most people will pick choice one, because they don’t want to risk losing money. But you know that choice two is actually better, because you can calculate the average value of each choice. The average value is the return times the probability. For choice one, the average value is $900, but for choice two, the average value is $990. This is why most people are wrong to pick choice one. This is called the zero-risk bias.

The zero-risk bias means that we hate losing more than we love winning. We feel more pain from losing something than joy from gaining something equal. We prefer choices that have no risk at all, even if they have lower rewards.

You can see this in many products and services that offer a 100 percent money-back guarantee. This is a way of using the zero-risk bias to attract customers. Customers think they have nothing to lose, so they buy from this seller instead of a cheaper one without a guarantee. But this is also good for the seller, because they get more customers and more money, even if some of them return the product.

But what if you can’t offer a 100 percent money-back guarantee? What else can you do to use the zero-risk bias to your advantage? You can think of other ways to make your customers feel safe and secure. You can show them that there is no risk in some other aspect of your offer.

For example, let’s say you have a new and good way of investing money that helps everyone. You can’t promise that everyone will make money, because that is not realistic. But you can make your offer more appealing by highlighting something else that has no risk. For example, you can say that there is no risk of the transaction failing, or waiting too long on the phone, or supporting bad businesses. These things are not as important as making money, but they still matter to people. The zero-risk bias will make them more likely to choose your offer. But remember, you should only say things that are true and honest.

Bias 4: The halo effect

John F. Kennedy wanted to send an American man to the moon. But first, he had to give a speech that would convince people to support him. He did this at Rice University in 1962.

In this speech, he said many nice things about the college, the city, and the state. He said they were known for knowledge, progress, and strength. He did this right at the beginning of his speech. Why did he do this?

He did this because he knew how people think and feel. When we meet someone or something for the first time, we quickly form an opinion about them. If we see something good, we think everything else is good too. This is called the halo effect, because it’s like we see a halo around them.

But the opposite is also true. If we see something bad, we think everything else is bad too. This is called the reverse halo effect, because it’s like we see a dark cloud around them.

The halo effect and the reverse halo effect are very powerful. They make us judge people or things based on our first impression. That’s why good speakers try to make a good first impression.

You can do this too, by paying attention to how you communicate. You can think about where you meet people, how you sound, how you look, and how you act. You can also think about what you say and how you say it.

For example, if you are giving a speech at a conference, you can go there early and check the room and the equipment. This will make you look confident and prepared. You can also dress well, but not too much or too little. You can also speak clearly and loudly, and use gestures and expressions. You can also say nice and respectful things to your audience, like JFK did.

These things will help you create a good first impression. And a good first impression will help you achieve your goals.

Bias 5: Attribute substitution

Do you know where the phrase “rule of thumb” comes from? It comes from a way of guessing if you were safe from a nuclear bomb.

During the Cold War, many people didn’t have a device to measure radiation. So they were told to do this: if you see a big cloud from a bomb, hold your arm out and put your thumb up. If your thumb covers the cloud, you are probably fine; if it doesn’t, you need to run.

Thankfully, nuclear bombs are not very common now. But we still use rules of thumb to make decisions. Attribution substitution is the reason why we do this.

Sometimes we have to make hard and complicated choices. Our brains don’t like to work too hard, so they try to make things easier. They do this by replacing the hard question with a simpler one. Then they use the answer to the simple question for the hard one.

This also affects how we judge other people, not just things like radiation. For example, it’s easier to answer “Do I like this person?” than “Do I agree with what they say?”. Think of someone you don’t like. How often do you agree with them? Not very often, right?

This can help us talk better and influence others.

The first thing we can do is to show our audience that we share their views and feelings. People like those who are similar to them, so we should try to understand who they are and what they want. The more we can relate to them, the more they will listen to us.

The second thing we can do is to link ourselves and our messages to facts and/or trusted groups. Checking and questioning information is hard work, so most people don’t do it. They just look for clues that show if something is true or not. For example, they look for sources, names, or logos that they know or trust.

These things are easy to do, but they make a big difference. They make our audience think that our message is important and true, and they will believe us more.

Final summary

Good speakers know how people listen and learn – and they talk in that way. Luckily, anyone can learn to do this by studying how people make decisions and act on them.

The availability bias, contrast effect, zero-risk bias, halo effect, and attribute substitution are all ways of thinking that you can use to help others. Even using one of them will make you – and what you say – stand out.

About the author

Peter Andrei is the person who started Speak Truth Well LLC, where he helps people write and speak better. He was very good at speaking in competitions, and he won 37 prizes and the Massachusetts Debate League State Champion award. He wrote 15 books about speaking well, such as How Legendary Leaders Speak and How Visionaries Speak.

Support us to create more summaries for you:

Amazon book link