Facial Attraction

Here's an interesting article on facial attraction that is likely to stimulate some interesting class discussion. The basic finding is that women who are in their fertile period prefer masculine facial features (George Clooney, rather than Pee Wee Herman--examples from Steven Gangestad, the author of the study).

Names

Here’s a study on names (you can access the entire study from the website given here/above) that has received lots of attention—Psychology Today, The New York Times, etc. it was conducted in The Netherlands and so probably cannot be directly applied to the United States. Yet, its findings (or “hypotheses” for study in other cultures) are most interesting. The study focuses on the perceptions people have of women as a result of their changing (or not changing) their name to that of their husbands’. For example, the study found that women who took on their husbands’ names or created hyphenated names were perceived as more dependent, emotional, and caring and less intelligent, competent, and ambitious than women who kept their own names. Even more interesting is the finding that a female job applicant who took used her husband’s name was less likely to be hired than the woman who kept her own name. It will be interesting to see if there’s any effect to Portia de Rossi’s taking the name of her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, and becoming Portia Lee James DeGeneres.

Online Politeness

Here's an intresting take on politeness (Int. J. of Virtual Communities and Social Networking, 1(2), 65-84, April-June 2009), a topic we address in our textbooks but never fully enough.

Virtual and face-to-face meetings

Here is a great little interview on virtual meetings and how they differ from the face to face groups that we emphasize in our small group chapters. Among the issues considered are how to dress for videoconferences, how to deal with the delays in teleconferences, and how a presentation in a virtual group should differ from one given in a face-to-face group.

Social Media Warnings

Here is a particularly useful set of guidelines for avoiding problems with social media messages. The examples are especially revealing and serve as warnings to all social media users but especially to those looking for a job. As you'll see, it's all pretty much common sense and yet you see violations every day--and they're costly.

College and its Benefits

Here's an interesting article on the value of a college degree--especially appropriate today when there is so much talk about college not necessarily being a good investment. This report shows that college and advanced degrees mean higher income. College also seems associated with a variety of social benefits, tho' college is not necessarily the causal factor here.

A preface to a public speaking course

This a little introduction I wrote to go into the next edition of my public speaking book. But, it may not fit and so I thought it might be of value to post here. These aren't the only things we might say to students in preface to a public speaking course, but they introduce, I think, a productive attitude and the importance of the right frame of mind in approaching a course like public speaking.

Beginning Your Study of Public Speaking

Preparing yourself for this course will help you get the maximum benefit. Here are a few suggestions.

4 Starters

1. Fear of public speaking is normal and isn't always a bad thing. Since it’s likely your major concern, we explain how you can manage your fear, making it work for you rather than against you, in the first chapter.

2. Make a commitment to exert a major effort in this course. It’s not going to be your easiest college course, but it will be worth your effort. You’ll see the rewards of competence in public speaking throughout your social and professional life and you’ll find that the skills of public speaking have application to all communication encounters.

3. Participate actively. Be willing to offer suggestions so others might improve and listen openly to the suggestions of others so you might improve.

4. This is a learning environment. You don’t have to be excellent; in fact, be prepared to make lots of mistakes. You’re here to learn how to correct mistakes and to emerge a competent and effective speaker.