Five of six British age groups are more confident about public speaking after COVID

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Jon Brady at The Daily Mail on October 22, 2023 with the 35-word title Gen Z in confidence crisis: Third of 18-24-year-olds are too scared for public speaking or doing a presentation in front of fellow staff … after years of Zoom schooling during the pandemic. It contains results from a survey (done for Speak with Impact) which I have replotted above as a horizontal bar chart. Only the 18-to-24-year-old (Gen Z) were less confident. The other five age groups were more confident, so why weren’t they emphasized by Mr. Brady? There also was an article by Richard Eldred at The Daily Sceptic on October 22, 2023 titled Gen Zers Are Too Scared for Public Speaking …After Years of Zoom Schooling During the Pandemic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even worse, the bar chart used in both the articles (shown above) is badly flawed. First, and most obviously there is little contrast between the blue bars and the background. Second, pink is being used to represent More confident, and blue to represent Less confident – which is backward from what might be expected. Third, the percent More confident should be shown first, to the left of Less confident, since it is larger in five of six cases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whoever created that graphic deserves a visit and a scolding from the mythical Bar Chart Police.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about the overall results? They were presented at Speak with Impact on August 2, 2023 in an article titled Impact of Covid on Presentation Confidence. As shown above, the majority (54%) were neither more mor less confident after the pandemic than before. 11% were much or slightly more confident, 26% were much or slightly less confident, and the other 8% didn’t know.

 

The Bar Chart Police badge was derived from this one at Openclipart.