PSYCH 7 Effects of Subject Familiarity on Public Speaking Anxiety

1. The Effects of Subject
Familiarity on Public Speaking
Shellbie Jensen, Kylee Sharp, & Antonio Juarez
Psych - 7
Alison Buckley

2. Abstract
Our project consists of studying the effects of subject familiarity
on public speaking anxiety. Participants were separated into two
groups at random and are either choosing a topic to present on,
out of 5 topics available, or being assigned one at random. These
five topics consist of art, history, math, science, and english. We
also provided an anxiety scale survey to view the symptoms and
levels of anxiety the participants experienced before and after
their presentations.

3. Introduction
A potential source of public speaking anxiety (also known as PSA) that has
been recently researched is audience pleasantness and familiarity. In essence,
public speaking presentations causes people to experience intense distress and
anxiety. When it comes to techniques and strategies, online presentations have
been found to be less-stress inducing via Zoom, to help with the feeling of
people physically watching you. Relaxation may be achieved without having to
see the audience in front of you. There appears to be a significant boost in
confidence and assists in diminishing for individuals presenting on remote
presentations. As a result, we believe those feeling more confident and have a
familiar knowledge in their presentation topic are less likely to experience
symptoms of public speaking anxiety.

4. Participants
Of the fourteen (14) participants, 85% were female, and 15% were
male. All participants were between the ages of 28 and 53 years of
age. 71.4% of participants identified as White, where as 14.3%
identified as Hispanic, and 14.3% identified as African American.
Participants were collected through an ad on Instagram and
Facebook. All participants were residents of Yolo County and were
a combination of students and full-time employed adults.

5. Methodology
Participants were put into a group at random between two different groups in
presenting a topic from a list of five basic education topics, such as history, science,
literature, art, and mathematics. One group had the ability to choose from that list of
topics, and the other group were assigned a topic from the same list at random by us.
Each topic has a brief reading about what to present about that topic. We had given
them a self report anxiety rating scale survey to fill out before they presented their
topic to let us know how they feel about presenting. They presented the topic that has
either been assigned to the participant or they have chosen from the list in front of the
three of us for about 5 minutes on Zoom. After they presented their topic with us, we
gave them the same survey as we gave them before presenting.

6. Results
Of the group that was assigned their presentation topics, 0% experienced an
increase in symptoms of anxiety after their presentation, while 85.7% experienced a
decrease in symptoms of anxiety and 14.3% experienced no change in symptoms.
In the group that chose their own presentation topics, 71.4 % experienced an
increase in anxiety symptoms, where as 28.6% experienced a decrease in anxiety
symptoms, and 0% experienced no change in anxiety symptoms.
After running the data collected, our T-Score was 0.53, with a degree of freedom of
2, making it less than 4.303, so the data is not significant and we have rejected our
null hypothesis.

7. Discussion
In this study there were multiple setbacks and confounds. For instance,
future studies should aim for a larger amount of participants (more than 14).
Having the presentations held in-person, in a more controlled environment
would also benefit the study, as being held on Zoom added small, different
interventions for each presenter such as bandwidth issues and family
members interrupting the presentations. Another change that should be
made is making sure the audience is larger, with less familiarity with the
speaker to ensure there is no change in anxiety levels in only certain
participants due to prior encounters with the audience.

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