Why are people afraid to speak out in lectures?

[job]

In a mechanics lecture this pm the professor gestured wildy and smacked the head of the overhead projector down.

He didn't realise what he'd done. Then for the next ten minutes before the lecture ended we could hardly see what he was writing.

Only one person at the back spoke up and said "Can you move it up please?" The professor apologised and moved the page up instead of the head up and the student didn't go on to explain what he had actually meant.

You could see people agitated that they couldn't read what was being written. How come no one spoke up?

[Craig]

Same reason you didn't, I suspect.

[somewhere only we know]

Because they're lazy, shy or stupid.

Why didn't you speak up?

[job]

Quoting Craig from 17:48, 19th Feb 2008
Same reason you didn't, I suspect.

Knew some smart arse was going to say that. I was watching to see if anyone else would.

[Craig]

Well, maybe everyone else was doing the same? The point is that if everyone waits for someone else to start, no-one will speak up.

I wasn't being an arse (much), just pointing out what everyone was most likely thinking - that someone else would do it.

I suppose people are embarrassed about speaking in public, and this extends to something as trivial as saying that the projector is messed up.

[job]

Craig second year physics?

[d_24]

Your lecture sounds no different to any other lecture/class/tutorial I've ever attended, only it illustrates the point more clearly: people are far too shy.

It happens on a daily basis but I suppose it can go the other way round with people not knowing when to stfu. Shyness though is not something I have ever seen happen with Americans who will without provocation often speak (at a British person's shouting level) confidently with lecturers whether they're correct or not. I've seen lecturers and tutors go wild trying to coerce people into actually speaking - especially in tutorials when people actually benefit from enthusiastic group conversation! Half the time they just want you're opinion they're not trying to trick you and no one will pounce on you if you're wrong! Come on people!

[hr]

Before Bauer...There Was House

[Craig]

I'm not the Craig you're looking for, I don't think.

Physics, yes. But not second year. Not this year anyway.

[Gubbins]

It's called the Bystander Effect (see also Kitty Geneovese Syndrome). Basically, no-one wants to be the first to do something.

[hr]

...then again, that is only my opinion.

[Craig]

Quoting Gubbins from 18:21, 19th Feb 2008
It's called the Bystander Effect (see also Kitty Geneovese Syndrome). Basically, no-one wants to be the first to do something.

Strange - I hadn't heard of Kitty Geneovese Syndrome till a couple days ago, and this is about the third time I have seen it used since then.

[Gubbins]

Quoting Craig from 18:26, 19th Feb 2008
Strange - I hadn't heard of Kitty Geneovese Syndrome till a couple days ago, and this is about the third time I have seen it used since then.

Neither had I, but it made me sound all intelligent and stuff by saying it . I'm guessing you frequent another popular web forum, then.

[hr]

...then again, that is only my opinion.

[Craig]

Yup, that's where I heard it. I lurk there, largely.

[creepy old man]

I generally don't speak up when a professor asks a question to the students. Answering questions makes like that in a silent room makes me feel like a suck-up. It's a shame, considering intellectual exchange and communication and whatnot is what we supposedly all come here for in the first place.

[Frank]

Shyness, everytime. Well, for me at least!

One day I'll grow a pair big enough to overcome the shyness, but until that day I'll cower in terror at the prospect of the lecturer singling me out as some sort of rebel/dissident...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[Jos Dad]

Quoting job from 17:46, 19th Feb 2008
In a mechanics lecture this pm the professor gestured wildy and smacked the head of the overhead projector down.

He didn't realise what he'd done. Then for the next ten minutes before the lecture ended we could hardly see what he was writing.

You have it easy. The professor of Applied Maths in my day (Rutherford) always told his department that the two "nonoes" in lecturing were to mumble into the board and cover up what you had written. Unfortunately he did not take his own advice, and would wander across the blackboard writing on it with a chalk in his right hand and deleting it with a board rubber in his left, meanwhile covering the writing with his gown. Is it any wonder I has difficulty with mechanics!