Public Communication

Communication anxiety has a lot of familiar names (nervousness, stage fright, apprehension),
and symptoms that most of us know all too well

Common Causes of Apprehension

1. Fear of being stared at. It isn’t exactly the audience we are afraid of. It’s their eyes. Most of
us hate being stared at. We feel awkward, self-conscious, and ill at ease. So, when you meet “all
those eyes” looking back at you from your audience, and you feel your heart throbbing or knees
shaking—remember, you are having a perfectly normal experience.

2. Fear of failing in public. None of us wants to look foolish in public. We don’t want others to
ridicule us or laugh at us. If you fail a math test, let’s say, no one has to know but you and the
instructor—unless you choose to share that failure with others. If we look unprepared in a
speech, everybody, everyone knows. There is something deeply embedded in our psyche: We
don’t want to look dumb in public; we don’t want to be laughed at or ridiculed. What is irrational
about that feeling?

3. Fear the audience will be unresponsive or unsympathetic. When we are in front of an

audience, we know we are being judged; we’re being evaluated. And none of us likes rejection.
We want people to like us, to appreciate our efforts, to respond favorably to our presence and our
ideas. Sometimes we say we don’t care, but that is a mask we can use to cover the possibility we
may find ourselves rejected by others. What is worse than being rejected in public? There is an
old saying, “I don’t want egg on my face.” It is derived from an old tradition of audiences tossing
eggs at speakers they don’t like. Public rejection is an old as public speaking.

4. Fear of the unpredictable. The space behind the podium—what we are going to call this
semester the "public space—is a place where unpredictable things happen. Every speaker has a
story to tell to make that point. The reality is that, as they say, “stuff happens.” As public
speakers we have to accept this and do the best we can through our preparation to reduce the
chance of the unpredictable. Though we naturally fear these unknown, unforeseen occurrences,
life does go one. We survive.