19 Feb 08 @ 9:57 am
Bottoms Up?
Have you considered gearing up for your next speech by having a couple of cocktails while working on your presentation? Or, have you considered having a few drinks to ease your anxiety the day before a big speech?
Research on speech performance in the past has mostly focused on writing, speech anxiety, practice, and motivation. A new study conducted by R.K. Mitchell and L. Nelson has turned these studies upside down by focusing on the effects of drinking alcohol in the five days prior to a speaking engagement.
In this study, the negative effects of drinking prior to a speech outweigh all of the positive effects of writing, practicing, reducing your anxiety, and your motivation to perform well. This study shows a strong correlation: the more alcohol consumed in the five days before a speech, the poorer the speech performance. There is no clear evidence at this time as to the number of drinks or the frequency of drinking that will have a negative effect on performance, but there is evidence to show a correlation between the two.
We may want to take this into consideration before a speaking engagement. If you would like to know more, you will find the full research article under the title:
Don’t Drink and Speak: The Relationships among Alcohol Use, Practice, Motivation, Anxiety, and Speech Performance, found in the May issue of Communication Research Reports by R. King-Mitchell and C.L. Nelson.
(For access online, a subscription is required)
www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a778590849~db=all~jumptype=rss
posted in category(s): Miscellaneous
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