But, not only are we moved by authority, and tend toward channels of least resistance:  We are all influenced by our environments.  It is difficult to rise above the sway of a crowd—­its enthusiasms and its fears are contagious because they are suggestive.  What so many feel, we say to ourselves, must have some basis in truth.  Ten times ten makes more than one hundred.  Set ten men to speaking to ten audiences of ten men each, and compare the aggregate power of those ten speakers with that of one man addressing one hundred men.  The ten speakers may be more logically convincing than the single orator, but the chances are strongly in favor of the one man’s reaching a greater total effect, for the hundred men will radiate conviction and resolution as ten small groups could not.  We all know the truism about the enthusiasm of numbers. (See the chapter on “Influencing the Crowd.”)

Environment controls us unless the contrary is strongly suggested.  A gloomy day, in a drab room, sparsely tenanted by listeners, invites platform disaster.  Everyone feels it in the air.  But let the speaker walk squarely up to the issue and suggest by all his feeling, manner and words that this is going to be a great gathering in every vital sense, and see how the suggestive power of environment recedes before the advance of a more potent suggestion—­if such the speaker is able to make it.

Now these three factors—­respect for authority, tendency to follow lines of least resistance, and susceptibility to environment—­all help to bring the auditor into a state of mind favorable to suggestive influences, but they also react on the speaker, and now we must consider those personally causative, or subjective, forces which enable him to use suggestion effectively.

How the Speaker Can Make Suggestion Effective

We have seen that under the influence of authoritative suggestion the audience is inclined to accept the speaker’s assertion without argument and criticism.  But the audience is not in this state of mind unless it has implicit confidence in the speaker.  If they lack faith in him, question his motives or knowledge, or even object to his manner they will not be moved by his most logical conclusion and will fail to give him a just hearing. It is all a matter of their confidence in him. Whether the speaker finds it already in the warm, expectant look of his hearers, or must win to it against opposition or coldness, he must gain that one great vantage point before his suggestions take on power in the hearts of his listeners.  Confidence is the mother of Conviction.

Note in the opening of Henry W. Grady’s after-dinner speech how he attempted to secure the confidence of his audience.  He created a receptive atmosphere by a humorous story; expressed his desire to speak with earnestness and sincerity; acknowledged “the vast interests involved;” deprecated his “untried arm,” and professed his humility.  Would not such an introduction give you confidence in the speaker, unless you were strongly opposed to him?  And even then, would it not partly disarm your antagonism?