39 – The science of joint attention in podcasting

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So the intent to share attention is something that we often do as human beings. So even when we're babies, we

understand that a finger pointed at us means that this human wants me to know something. It's a really

important part of how we learn things and how we communicate with each other. That joint attention,

sharing attention.

In fact, how good we are at this when we're infants, like when we're really little, determines how well we

learn later in life. There's studies about that. So joint attention is when one person coordinates

attention with another person. So it's multiple people paying attention to the same thing in a social

context with some level of intent baked in. For example, I could point at a magnificent heirloom tomato

that I grew,

and ask someone else to check it out. We both took part in that joint attention on purpose if that other

person agreed to look at my kick-ass tomato. I do a lot of improv and this is something that we do all the time

as improvisers. We have to for improv to even work in the first place. So we build worlds together by

listening and engaging in that shared world. And agreement is really important. We have to agree with each

other about what other

People drop into a scene being part of that world and then we all take part of it with intent. And the entire

scene, the entire act of doing improv is pretty much joint attention between scene partners. And this

matters for your content because joint attention is what you try to create every time you speak to a

listener. You're basically pointing at ideas and inviting your listener to hold it in their minds with

you.

And there are ways that we can achieve this effectively in our scripts and in our word choices, really. Some

phrases do this well. Phrases like, picture this, or listen, or you know that feeling when. And all of these

are an invitation to join me with joint attention on a subject. That last one's a little bit different, and

it's a pretty strong one because you're asking someone to do some

joint attention with emotions attached. And in all of these cases, you're asking the listener to

construct something in their mind while you construct it in yours. Now, there's other phrases we can use

that can break that joint attention. If you say something like, well, what I'm trying to say is, that sort of

phrase pulls the focus back to you and your process. Or even if you ask someone, does that make sense?

That is asking the listener on their own to evaluate their own situation with whatever it is that you just

said. What you're looking for are phrases that share the overall experience whenever you can add them. It

can take some time to get used to using these kinds of language or phrase choices when you're educating or

sharing information online. But when you're using phrases like them, like, hey, let's look at this

together.

It's a collaborative signal that human brains tend to like and prefer. So your solo podcast involves a

listener at the other end and that's why we address the listener you instead of saying listeners plural.

You're most likely listening to this alone because I believe it's 91% of people listen to podcasts on their

own. So the more that our language acknowledges that we're sharing this conversations between us, me,

one,

and you one person, the more that your brain will engage with the episode right now, just like it's an actual

conversation. Or at least that's what I hope. And if some of these phrases just don't at all feel natural to

you, you can limit or avoid them if you really want, because the greater priority than all of this is

speaking the most authentic version of yourself. That's also, of course,

I'm Jen DeHaan. This is a credibility minute. Find more episodes and get in touch with me at

stereoforest.com slash minute.