On October 25, 2024, Emma Shaffu El Chacar, a doctoral candidate in our research group, successfully defended her thesis, Assessing the Relationship Between Public Speaking Perception, Personality Traits, and Nonverbal Behavior. The research, supervised by Dr. Emma Rodero, also a member of the CAS group, investigates how personality traits and nonverbal behaviours influence audience perceptions in public speaking contexts.

The study involved 323 university participants and recreated a virtual modern public speaking scenario using an experimental design. Four actors (two male and two female) delivered identical speeches while varying their nonverbal behaviours to reflect specific Big Five personality traits. The findings revealed that audience personality traits affected perceived attributes such as sincerity and dominance, while the speaker’s gender shaped other perception attributes. Additionally, the perceived personality traits of the speakers influenced all the selected perception attributes.

The evaluation panel, composed of Dr. Olatz Larrea, Dr. Lluis Mas Manchón, and Dr. Maria Bou Zeid, commended the thesis for its theoretical and practical contributions, awarding it the highest distinction: Excellent with Cum Laude.

This work illuminates the interplay between public speaking, personality, and nonverbal behaviour and opens new avenues for research into the dynamics of speaker-audience interactions in communication settings.

Congratulations to Dr. Emma Shaffu El Chacar on this remarkable achievement and her valuable contribution to advancing research on public speaking and communication!