INFORMATIVE SPEECH Speech Topic: Understanding Authority and Its Influence Speech Title: Doctor in a White Coat. Why do we obey? General Purpose: To inform the audience about the concept of authority and the psychological impact it indirectly exerts on us. Specific Purpose: By the end of my speech, the audience will understand what authority is, the psychology that goes behind obedience and how the two correlate. Audience Relevance: Authority plays a significant role in our daily lives, from obeying classroom rules to following the advice of a teacher. Understanding its power can help us recognise it’s influence and make better decisions in various situations. Opening I. Attention Getter: No.1 dentist recommended toothpaste Have you ever seen how in toothpaste commercials there is always a doctor featured in a white coat? Why not a sports player? it’s always a doctor. Ever wonder why? It’s because authority sells! The moment we see that white coat, we assume, Oh, he is a doctor he must know what he’s talking about! And just like that, we most likely buy that toothpaste. This is how authority influences our decisions, sometimes in ways we don’t even realise. II. Thesis Statement: Psychologist Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence, explains that people have an automatic tendency to obey authority figures—even when it’s not always the best decision. Authority is the power to give orders, make decisions, and enforce rules. Body Point 1: The Obedience Experiment A doctor-nurse obedience experiment conducted by Charles K. Hofling in 1966 where a “fake doctor” called nurses working in well reputed hospitals to give a patient an unauthorised medication in a dosage more than what is considered safe for a human body, think about what happened next? 21 out of 22 nurses complied with this request despite being trained and having experience, “Why” because a doctor said so. Point 2: Symbols of Authority and Their Influence Robert Cialdini’s research shows that we don’t just follow real authority—we follow anything that looks like authority. Titles, uniforms, and status symbols make us obey without even thinking. Another interesting experiment was conducted on five classes of Australian college students where a man was introduced to each of these classes with a different authority title, surprisingly at the end of the study when students were asked to guess this man’s height, “it directly correlated to his title of authority” the same man grew in height by an average of half an inch with increase in his authority title. (P R Wilson,1968) Point 3: How to Recognise and Question Authority Does this mean we should never listen to authority? Not exactly because sometimes without authority in place there will be no system. But according to Robert Cialdini there are two golden rules for checking if an authority figure is worth obeying: 1. Are they an expert? (Like, really an expert—not just someone in a doctor’s coat) 2. How truthful can we expect the expert to be? (Because just having authority doesn’t mean they’re honest.) Doctors in a commercial, you really do not know if they are actual doctors, they might just be actors. “ audience can get lured by symbols” Conclusion I. So the main points: • Authority does have an impact on our minds. “ we limit our ability to question when guided by authority, due to blind trust” • We react not only to authority but also symbols of authority without realising. “ you would not respond as effectively to a toothpaste ad when your shown somebody whose not a doctor in a white coat” II. Closing Strategy: So maybe the next time when you see a toothpaste commercial and a doctor in it, you know what to do, don’t buy it!! Okay maybe this is not what we take away but question yourself when obeying authority, is it because of the knowledge or the symbols that we are seeing. We should be aware of the fact that authority symbols often have the power of deceiving us.