Public speaking in Vevey: does humour help people remember the recommendation?
In a professional presentation, laughter provides immediate but ambiguous feedback. For a manager advocating a project, the useful question is specific: does a touch of humour help the audience remember the recommendation, or just the amusing passage?
What the literature establishes
Martin Eisend (2009, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science) brings together research findings on humour in advertising in a meta-analysis. Humour notably supports attention and positive emotional responses, without uniformly improving all persuasive outcomes. These findings suggest distinguishing an enjoyable reception of a message from its effect on judgement.
What memory prioritises
Stephen R. Schmidt (1994, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition) finds a recall advantage for humorous wording under certain presentation conditions in experiments using sentences. The findings highlight the importance of the context in which humorous and non-humorous material is compared. They do not establish that a humorous remark improves memory for the arguments surrounding it.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that a funnier presentation will be more effective. The crucial distinction is that drawing attention to a phrase and making a recommendation memorable are different outcomes. Linking humour to the central content is therefore a working hypothesis to test, not a validated recipe for executive committees. (our executive and employee training programmes)
The limits of the evidence and immediate feedback
These studies concern advertising and sentence memory, not decisions made after a managerial presentation. Their applicability to a multilingual professional audience remains to be tested, particularly where cultural references are not shared. Laughter and reported satisfaction are insufficient to establish that the audience has understood the proposal.
A practical check in Vevey
As part of SHR’s “Public Speaking & impact” programme, an exercise in Vevey could use a procurement recommendation intended for the headquarters of a global food group or an SME on the Riviera. Randomly assign participants to two versions of equal length with identical arguments: one straightforward, the other including humorous wording linked to the recommendation. The following day, without supporting materials, ask each participant to recall the recommendation and its main justification, then calculate the proportion of correct responses using a scoring rubric defined in advance. Recording recall of the humorous passage separately would help check whether the message became more memorable or only the joke left a trace. To go further: explore the Public Speaking & Impact training in Vevey in the canton of Vaud, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
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