Rosemary Ravinal told us a decade-old myth about fear of public speaking in a blog post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a post by Rosemary Ravinal at her The Master Communicator Blog on January 30, 2023 titled True or False: 9 public speaking myths debunked. But it actually has ten ‘myths’ claimed as true (T) or false (F) as follows:

 

You should eradicate filler words. (T)

Visualize your audience naked to calm your nerves. (F)

Public speaking is the number one fear of human beings. (T)

Professional speakers have overcome stage fright. (F)

Great speakers are born that way (F)

Dull topics make for boring presentations. (F)

You should never memorize your speech. (T)

Standing with crossed arms displays your confidence. (F)

Make eye contact with people in the back row. (T)

Great presentations require dazzling videos. (F)

  

Rosemary also discusses this in a YouTube video titled The True or False of Public Speaking: Nine Myths Debunked. And there is a more recent premium article at the Radio + Television Business Report on September 22, 2023 titled Public Speaking Myths: Debunked! which omits the last three myths.

 

Her third claim in the blog post is:

 

“Public speaking is the number one fear of human beings

True

Fear of public speaking or stage fright is the most common phobia ahead of death, insects, or heights, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health [Ref.]. I resist believing that people prefer to die than speak in public, yet the data shows that half of the population experience an audience as a threatening predator. Go figure.”

 

But that is a myth (based on superficial research) in five ways. First there is Where. On June 28, 2023 I blogged about how You can’t use surveys from the United States to estimate fears for the whole world, since the US is just plain weird (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second there is What. A phobia is different from a fear, as I illustrated via the Venn diagram shown above, taken from a blog post on December 8, 2019 titled Toastmasters press releases confuse a fear of public speaking with a social phobia.

 

 

Third there is Who. There are no US National Institutes of Mental Health – it is just the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health.

 

Fourth there is What. She refers to an article by Pat LaDouceur at MentalHelp.net on September 12, 2013 titled What We Fear More Than Death that claims 75% (three quarters) have this fear rather than half.

 

Fifth there is How. The LaDouceur article she referenced is mistaken. There was no survey from NIMH, just nonsense from Statistic Brain. I blogged about it on August 14, 2020 in a post titled Toastmaster magazine is spreading nonsense from John Bowe about how common the fear of public speaking is. Lots of others fell for that nonsense, as I discussed in an August 30, 2020 blog post titled Spouting nonsense: Another 16 books refer to a bogus statistic that 74% fear public speaking (suffer from speech anxiety).