Have you ever listened to a speech and noticed that when the speaker makes an emotional expression, such as smiling or laughing, that you may find yourself smiling in response even before something humorous is said? It is almost as though these emotional expressions are contagious and an audience may experience those emotions, simply by observing their expression in the speaker.
It turns out that is exactly what happens. Scientists have discovered that there are emotional neural responses in our brains which can be triggered by observing other people experiencing those emotions. See the following video:
See also:
While scientists have been able to use functional MRI to quantitatively evaluate this phenomenon recently, the experience has always been an integral part of human existence. One of the most obvious manifestations may be when a baby sees another baby cry and then starts to cry himself, despite being perfectly content a moment before. See this video montage for examples (you will likely experience discomfort and anxiety while watching this video because those same mirror neurons are working in you as the viewer):
Implications
Since this property of the human mind has always existed, is it possible that people may learn how to deliberately evoke an emotional response in others by manifesting that emotion themselves? The history of theater and drama easily demonstrates that this is true. Every year we give awards to actors whose effectiveness lies in giving powerful performances which generate an emotional response in viewers. These same skills have also been used by motivational speakers and charismatic leaders throughout history.
President Eyring
Henry B Eyring is the First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Any member of that church who pays attention to the sermons of their leaders would likely be able to tell you that Elder Eyring is very memorable because of the emotional impact of his talks. People often express how they were able to feel a powerful emotional response what he talks – many times attributing this to “the spirit.”
I have spent some time listening to Eyring’s speeches and can attest to the fact that there are few if any speeches that he gives where he does not visibly and audibly make an emotional display. It is sort of his signature. It comes more often and is of a softer gentler nature than you will see in the speeches of Jeffrey R Holland, who is often bold and energetic in his mannerisms, but it is always there.
Here is a link to all of Eyring’s General Conference talks. Go ahead and click it and watch a talk at random. You will almost always find multiple emotional moments in his talks.
Breaking it down
There are two different aspects of Eyring’s emotional displays which give them such powerful effectiveness. Emotional Expression and Emotional Focus.
Emotional Expressions
The first is the way that the emotion is expressed. I have broken this down into a handful of expressions which you will be able to identify in Eyring’s repertoire once you understand how they work.
- Quivering voice – This is an expression of emotion that can be very subtle. The addition of a mild shakiness to his voice at key points is perceived by the viewer as his deep emotions coming to the surface, but with Eyring still able to maintain control and continue to convey his message. When you hear it in his voice, you mind is primed to respond emotionally to what he is saying and the sincerity of his expression is solidified. Since men generally avoid crying in public, the quivering voice perceived as Eyring displaying a guileless sort of vulnerability which increases our desire to empathize with him and accept what he is saying without criticism.
- Half Cry – The half cry is a more intense manifestation of emotion than the quivering voice. While you don’t observe a visible change in Eyring’s facial expression with the quivering voice, the half cry will include a more intense vocal quiver but also include grimacing, squinting, frowning, downsloping eyebrows or other visual facial expressions. These visual cues may actually cause the observer to feel an impulse to mirror those expressions and you may find yourself making similar expressions. This stronger emotional stimulus increases the persuasive effectiveness of Eyring’s discourse and as an observer your own mirrored experience of emotions will add to your empathy with Eyering, priming you to readily accept the sincerity of what he is conveying verbally.
- Meaningful Pause – This is a particularly powerful emotional expression. The meaningful pause is when Eyring has to stop speaking because his emotions have become so overwhelming that he is not able to continue speaking. He will generally manifest facial expressions of the half cry while he has paused. As an observer we can’t help but to empathize with him. Here is a respected and dignified man who is exposing emotional vulnerability so completely that he is entirely overwhelmed. The pause in his speaking gives our minds time to consider the content of his speech (the emotional focus, we cover in the next section) and that briefly “seals in” the impact of what he is talking about and we want to believe it because we do not assume that such emotions can be faked or fabricated.
- The sniff – This is an indirect emotional expression. We all have had the experience of crying and having a runny nose as a result. By inserting an audible sniff, our own brains perceive and validate the emotional experience that Eyring is conveying. It is nonetheless an effective detail in the conveyance of emotional expression and triggers our mirrored response.
- Tears – This is indirect but effective expression of emotion. When we see someone to have visibly moist eyes or streaks of tears running down their cheeks we are primed to empathize with those emotions and take for granted the sincerity and truthfulness of what is being said.
- Emotional Laugh – This is an unexpected aspect of Eyring’s emotional displays. It is a bit jarring and honestly tends to decrease the effectiveness of his speeches. There are times when Eyring laughs at something that is not humorous and that laugh gradually morphs into a half cry or quivering voice. It may simply be an expression of nervousness, but it happens frequently in his most recent live face2face session.
Emotional Focus
The second aspect of Eyring’s emotional display is the context of where in his speech he is manifesting his emotional display. You can imagine that if he were to tear up while describing something that is not a strong focus of emotion, such as taking out the trash or driving a car – it would be discordant. The emotional expression would not match the content of his speech and while we might feel a mirrored impulse of sadness, it would quickly be overwhelmed by our cognitive disconnect with what he was saying.
On the other hand when Eyring is talking about things which carry a great deal of emotional impact, in and of themselves, then his emotional expressions greatly magnify the effectiveness of his speaking. This is where Eyring is a master of his craft. He will add just the right amount of emotional expression to the following emotional foci in order to really connect with the listener:
- love of family
- love of spouse
- love for God
- Humility
- Personal failings
- weakness
- repentance
- Joseph Smith
- Majesty of God
- Miracles
- Testimony
- Persecution
- Personal nostalgia
As you can see, all of these foci of emotion are things which members of the mormon church would hold in high reverence to start with and so the addition of a visible or audible emotional expression when discussing them would intensify the mirrored emotional response in the mind of the listener.
Example
You can watch this video of Eyring’s special witness of Jesus Christ. He keeps a calm and collected demeanor for the whole testimony with the exception of a few words at the most important part. He masterfully lets a very subtle quivering voice come in at 2:20 on the words “I know that He lives.” It is super effective.
Intentional?
Some people may listen and watch Eyring and be absolutely convinced that he is giving a calculated performance every time. It is possible to understand why they may think this. Our celebrated actors are able to fabricate all of those emotional expressions for the purposes of drama and we have all been moved by movies with such powerful performances – even actors as old as Eyring. A somewhat cynical view of Eyring could hold that he is a skilled actor in this regard, but that is not the only way to consider these facts.
We can accept the fact that our minds are wired to empathize with those expressions of emotions and then also realize that an experienced orator learns over time, both consciously and subconsciously, what is most effective in how they deliver a speech and connect with an audience. It may not be so much an intentional fabrication of emotional expression but rather simply allowing his own natural authentic emotions to surface while he speaks.
Each of us has some degree of control over how much emotion we allow to show while we are talking. Eyring frequently demonstrates his own ability to control his emotions because he will quickly switch from a quivering voice or half cry into a normal controlled steady and even vocal pattern. It is possible that he has subconsciously learned that he is able to optimally connect with his audience and increase the emotional, and thus spiritual, effectiveness of his discourses by loosening up his own emotional control and allowing those natural emotions to show more than if he consciously tried to clamp them down.
I don’t think that Eyring’s emotions are fake. I think he is a naturally emotional individual who understands that those emotions can elevate his talks about strong emotional themes and powerfully affect an audience of Mormons.
Emotions equal Truth
Remember that Mormons are raised believing that when they feel those powerful emotions in the context of hearing religious themes from leaders – that this experience is the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead, testifying of the truthfulness of the speaker. As such, his signature emotional talks are received by LDS members as sort of connection with the divine and a confirmation of Truth. This sublime religious experience makes Eyring a revered leader and cherished speaker. When I was an active member I remember feeling a great affection for the soft mannered and spiritual talks that Eyring gave.
Masterclass
Now that you have learned a bit about the mechanics of emotional expressions of Eyring’s speech patterns, it’s time to see them in action and check if you can pick up on exactly how he is such an effective speaker. The following is a series of clips of every times that Eyring got emotional in the 4 March 2017 Face2Face event held with President Eyring and Elder Holland. They were given questions from the audience and spoke directly to youth in reply. You will get a sense of how frequently and effectively Eyring employs emotional expression to amplify the effectiveness of his speaking. Youth are particularly vulnerable to this type of delivery because they may be less experienced in distinguishing emotional from cognitive responses to this type of communication.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that since researchers on both animals and humans have objectively documented that these mirror neurons and responses are subconscious and involuntary – the use of emotional expressions in speaking can be seen as a form of emotional manipulation. When television advertisements use them (and they do all the time) then we understand their motives and can check ourselves and remember that just because that life insurance ad made us tear up – that doesn’t mean that we have to rush out and buy a policy. By the same token, just because we find ourselves responding emotionally to Eyring’s patterns of speech – it doesn’t mean that his statements should be accepted without critical thinking. We need to be aware that our emotions are being affected by a very predictable and reproducible part of human nature.
When you are aware of the effect that these emotional displays have on you, then you start to see through it. I guarantee you will never look at Eyring’s emotional expressions the same way again.
