Matt Abrahams
Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business · 1 appearance on the record.
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Matt Abrahams is a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast. He is the author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter and advises executives on high-stakes communication.
22statements → 5claims → 5claims resolved → 80%fully supported → 3.95/5average certainty → 1.55/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →
4 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
5 assertions · 1 opinion · 16 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Matt argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Abrahams: Anxiety and excitement trigger the identical physiological response
“When you get physically aroused by anxiety, you're under that fight or flight threat response. It turns out that same response Happens to your body when you're excited. The human body has pretty much just one arousal response. Our heart beats faster. We breath…”
Their most notable contradicted claim
Abrahams: Cursing releases neurochemicals that blunt cortisol and lower anxiety
“There's research that says that when you swear curse, it actually helps you reduce anxiety. When you curse, you release a flood of neurochemicals that blunt out the neurochemicals associated with anxiety, cortisol being a big one. So you get a big dopamine hit…”
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Matt Abrahams on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Matt Abrahams said on Lenny's Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Abrahams: Classic influence advice risks sounding manipulative and inauthentic
“I know the book. Some of the stuff, I, some of that stuff has been true for a long time. Some of the stuff, I'm not a big fan of ingratiation and manipulation. So I like authenticity and some of the advice in books like that can sound like smile, nod your head…”
Abrahams: Striving for connection over perfection frees cognitive bandwidth
“Strive for connection over perfection. By daring to be dull, just get the task done. Just answer the question. Just give the feedback. Just be engaged in the small talk. And by doing that, you dial down the volume of self-evaluation, freeing up resources that …”
Abrahams: Anxiety and excitement trigger the identical physiological response
“When you get physically aroused by anxiety, you're under that fight or flight threat response. It turns out that same response Happens to your body when you're excited. The human body has pretty much just one arousal response. Our heart beats faster. We breath…”
Abrahams: Cursing releases neurochemicals that blunt cortisol and lower anxiety
“There's research that says that when you swear curse, it actually helps you reduce anxiety. When you curse, you release a flood of neurochemicals that blunt out the neurochemicals associated with anxiety, cortisol being a big one. So you get a big dopamine hit…”
Abrahams: Improving at spontaneous speaking requires deliberate preparation
“You actually have to prepare to be spontaneous and that's counterintuitive, but it is through preparation that we get better at it.”
Abrahams: Improv training is about presence and collaboration, not comedy
“When people hear improv, they think oh, I gotta be funny and it's about performing and it's not. Improv is really just about being more comfortable, Being present and really focusing on collaborating with others”
Abrahams: Small talk requires reciprocal depth of personal disclosure
“One rule is the one that you shared that in small talk, there should be a balance of disclosure or depth of disclosure over time. So if you're telling me about the first time your first pet died, and I'm telling you my favorite color is blue, there's a discrep…”
Abrahams: Conversations require more supporting than shifting responses
“And the goal in a good conversation is to have more supporting responses than shifting, but to have some shifting responses. Because if all I do is continually support you, it looks like I don't want to share. I'm not being disclosive at all.”
Abrahams: Constructive feedback should follow the Four Is framework
“So in the four I structure, the first I is information. You're just setting the playing field, so the person knows what you're giving the feedback about. The second is impact, and this is impact on you, the feedback giver. The third is the invitation that you …”
Abrahams: Avoid ending Q&A responses with 'does that make sense?'
“One is saying good question to every question, and two at the end of answering the question saying, does that make sense? Because in both cases, you're trying to validate the asker when you say good question. You're also trying to buy yourself time and there a…”
Abrahams: Saying 'sorry you feel bad' fails to assume responsibility
“And when we apologize, we need to make sure that we apologize for the transgression and not for how we made people feel. So often people will simply say, I'm sorry that you feel bad. Well, that's not an apology that, that that's, you know, you're not, Assuming…”
Abrahams: Visualization desensitizes public speaking anxiety like a flight simulator
“This notion of visualization as a tool of desensitization actually can be very helpful, but you're not visualizing the audience half naked. What you're doing is you're visualizing yourself in that space. You're visualizing the audience responding to you and wh…”
Abrahams: Reframing anxiety as excitement improves perceived communication performance
“And her research fascinatingly found that people actually were perceived as communicating better. And again, that's because the pressure was taken off of them.”
Abrahams: Evidence supports personifying and conversing with inner critics
“There is a lot of evidence on personifying the things that challenge us and then having conversations with it.”
Abrahams: Structuring presentations as self-conversations reduces anxiety
“A great technique to help people that I, that often isn't talked about is many of us feel much more comfortable in conversation than we do in presenting. And conversation is a back and forth. So you can actually set up a lot of your communication situations, a…”
Abrahams: Speaking anxiety peaks one minute before and during minute one
“Most people are most nervous one minute before speaking and the first minute of speaking. And if you can find ways to get yourself through that, then it becomes much easier for most people.”
Abrahams: Exhaling longer than inhaling is critical to the relaxation response
“The bottom line is this, what's critical to the relaxation response is the exhale. Lots of ways to inhale. Lots of ways to exhale. You want your exhale to be longer than the inhale. The magic of the relaxation happens during the exhale.”
Abrahams: Structured frameworks halve cognitive burden during spontaneous speaking
“So by finding a structure that you can rely on when put on the spot, it halves your burden. When you're put on the spot, you have to think about what to say and how to say it. The structure tells you how to say it, and then you just have to think about what to…”
Abrahams: Use PREP for points and What-So What-Now What for updates
“Prep works really well for a point you're making, what, so what, now what, works really well for A broader presentation, update, feedback session that you're giving.”
Abrahams: Structure effective event toasts using the WHAT framework
“So I have an acronym. It works. It's called WHAT. W-H-A-T. So the W stands for why are we here? Now, if I'm at a wedding, I don't have to tell the audience why we're here. We get it. But if we're doing an all hands and I'm called up to speak, it might be in my…”
Abrahams: Use the ADD framework for concise and impactful Q&A answers
“This structure is related to the what-so-what-now-stru- now-what structure. It's called ADD for adding value. You answer the question cleanly and concisely. You then give an example to reinforce the answer, and then you explain the relevance or significance of…”
Abrahams: Meaningful apologies require the three-step AAA framework
“So you acknowledge the actual behavior and offense, not how you made the person feel right away. You then express appreciation for the difficulty you might've caused, and then you make amends. And the AAA approach I think can really be helpful to people to be …”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| How to speak more confidently and persuasively | Matt Abrahams (professor, speaker, author | Mar 31, 2024 | 45m |