In 1990, Elizabeth Newton earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tappers” or “listeners.” Tappers received a list of twenty-five well-known songs, such as “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Each tapper was asked to pick a song and tap out the rhythm to a listener (by knocking on a table). The listener’s job was to guess the song, based on the rhythm being tapped.
The tappers got their message across 1 time in 40, but they thought they were getting their message across 1 time in 2. Why?
Because it’s hard to be a tapper. The tapper is humming the song in her head while tapping, she is seeing the whole picture, it’s so clear! Putting yourself in the listener’s shoes and pretending to be someone who doesn’t know what you do and do know lots of stuff that you don’t is extremely difficult.
In my experience, being aware of this, alone, is a powerful piece of information to improve the dialogue. For the tapper, to explore being clear and explicit in what is said and take the other person’s knowledge into account. For the listener — well, to shut up, listen, and ask exploratory questions.
This experiment is cited in the excellent book Made to Stick.
It’s too damn hard to be a tapper.
In 1990, Elizabeth Newton earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tappers” or “listeners.” Tappers received a list of twenty-five well-known songs, such as “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Each tapper was asked to pick a song and tap out the rhythm to a listener (by knocking on a table). The listener’s job was to guess the song, based on the rhythm being tapped.
The tappers got their message across 1 time in 40, but they thought they were getting their message across 1 time in 2. Why?
Because it’s hard to be a tapper. The tapper is humming the song in her head while tapping, she is seeing the whole picture, it’s so clear! Putting yourself in the listener’s shoes and pretending to be someone who doesn’t know what you do and do know lots of stuff that you don’t is extremely difficult.
In my experience, being aware of this, alone, is a powerful piece of information to improve the dialogue. For the tapper, to explore being clear and explicit in what is said and take the other person’s knowledge into account. For the listener — well, to shut up, listen, and ask exploratory questions.
This experiment is cited in the excellent book Made to Stick.
“Made to stick” was on my list — I will have to bump it upwards a few notches. Thank you for posting this.