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Media & PsychologyPR Theories

The Paradox of Prominence

What elevates you is what makes you a target.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
The Paradox of Prominence highlights the struggle between gaining visibility and maintaining trust. When individuals or brands rise to prominence, they often face increased scrutiny, which can erode the very credibility that elevated them in the first place.
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Table of contents

Be mind­ful of the para­dox of prominence.

With every increase in vis­ib­il­ity, there is a cor­res­pond­ing increase in cri­ti­cism. To make mat­ters more com­plic­ated, it’s what earns you that recog­ni­tion that also becomes the tar­get of scrutiny.

It’s the Paradox of Prominence.

Here we go:

The Paradox of Prominence

The paradox of prominence.
The para­dox of prominence.
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The Paradox of Prominence

The ever-loom­ing “dark side” of what drives people’s interest can be chal­len­ging for pub­lic rela­tions (PR) and com­mu­nic­a­tions pro­fes­sion­als. This phe­nomen­on, where every strength inher­ently pos­sesses a cor­res­pond­ing down­side, can be called the “Paradox of Prominence.”

An example of this para­dox is the halo effect, where phys­ic­al attract­ive­ness becomes an asset for a spokes­per­son. Attractiveness often leads to pos­it­ive biases; attract­ive indi­vidu­als are fre­quently per­ceived as more cred­ible and com­pet­ent. 1Eagly, A. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., & Longo, L. C. (1991). What is beau­ti­ful is good, but…: A meta-ana­lyt­ic review of research on the phys­ic­al attract­ive­ness ste­reo­type. … Continue read­ing 2Silfwer, J. (2023, December 17). The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​h​a​l​o​-​e​f​f​e​ct/

However, this same attrib­ute can spark neg­at­ive reac­tions. Critics might claim that the indi­vidu­al’s suc­cess or vis­ib­il­ity is primar­ily due to their looks, under­min­ing their com­pet­en­cies. This dual­ity illus­trates how the qual­it­ies that draw pos­it­ive atten­tion can sim­ul­tan­eously attract cri­ti­cism and scepticism.

Competence, anoth­er valu­able trait, often encoun­ters sim­il­ar pit­falls. Highly com­pet­ent indi­vidu­als inspire con­fid­ence and admir­a­tion. Nevertheless, this com­pet­ence can be per­ceived neg­at­ively when will­fully inter­preted as arrog­ance. Studies sug­gest that while com­pet­ence garners respect, it can also lead to social pen­al­ties, such as envy and resent­ment. 3Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A mod­el of (often mixed) ste­reo­type con­tent: Competence and warmth respect­ively fol­low from per­ceived status and com­pet­i­tion. Journal of … Continue read­ing

Examples of the Paradox of Prominence

The para­dox of prom­in­ence seems to be an inher­ent aspect of human interest dynamics. 

ProminencePositive OutcomeNegative Outcome
Physical attract­ive­nessEnhanced cred­ib­il­ity and trustAccusations of super­fi­cial success
High com­pet­enceRespected and trus­ted as an expertPerceived as arrog­ant or unapproachable
CharismaAbility to inspire and attract followersViewed as manip­u­lat­ive or insincere
Strong advocacyIncreased sup­port and mobil­iz­a­tion for a causeTarget of intense cri­ti­cism from opponents
WealthSeen as suc­cess­ful and influentialResentment and accus­a­tions of greed or unfairness
AssertivenessEffective lead­er­ship and decision-makingLabeled as dom­in­eer­ing or aggressive
InnovationAdmired for cre­ativ­ity and forward-thinkingResistance to change and cri­ti­cism from traditionalists
High vis­ib­il­ityGreater recog­ni­tion and influenceIncreased scru­tiny and loss of privacy
GenerosityViewed as kind-hearted and philanthropicSuspected of ulteri­or motives
Success in com­pet­it­ive fieldsRole mod­el and sym­bol of achievementEnvy and attempts to under­mine accomplishments

We must recog­nise that with every increase in vis­ib­il­ity, there is a cor­res­pond­ing increase in scru­tiny and criticism.

Pick Your Opponents Wisely

Public aware­ness comes with inev­it­able costs.

In the quest for great­er vis­ib­il­ity and influ­ence, it is crit­ic­al to acknow­ledge that “being uni­ver­sally well-liked” is a naïve and unreal­ist­ic goal. 

  • “Public rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als must stra­tegic­ally decide the audi­ences they aim to attract and — of equal import­ance! — the adversar­ies they are will­ing to con­tend with.”

By stra­tegic­ally har­ness­ing this para­dox, pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als can man­age pub­lic per­cep­tion by inter­n­al­ising expec­ted “down­sides” as addi­tion­al aware­ness drivers. 

Learn more: The Paradox of Prominence

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“Grey” is Not the Way

One might argue that mit­ig­at­ing the poten­tial down­sides by ton­ing down your prom­in­ence is a viable solu­tion. However, this approach would res­ult in a mediocre present­a­tion at best — one that fails to cap­ture atten­tion or make a sig­ni­fic­ant impact.

  • Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tion does not need any addi­tion­al mediocre or plain vanilla mes­saging that has been reduced to sleep-indu­cing bor­ing­ness. We have enough of that already.

The essence of the para­dox of prom­in­ence lies in this del­ic­ate bal­ance: striv­ing for vis­ib­il­ity and influ­ence inev­it­ably invites scru­tiny and cri­ti­cism. This dual­ity is not a “prob­lem” per se — it’s your inher­ent “con­tra­dic­tion fric­tion” that makes you more attractive.

Either way, no one escapes the Norman axiom.

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Thanks for read­ing. Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing art­icles with oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions and mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als. You might also con­sider my PR ser­vices or speak­ing engage­ments.

PR Resource: The Norman Axiom

The Norman Axiom - Norman living by the airfield complaining about noise.
The Norman axiom.
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The Norman Axiom

Many years ago, I stumbled across this meme with “Norman” com­plain­ing about the noise from the nearby air­field. I call this the Norman Axiom.

I tell the story about Norman to illus­trate two key points in pub­lic relations:

  • Despite being “right” leg­ally and “cor­rect” fac­tu­ally, you’ll still suf­fer neg­at­ive PR con­sequences if you act unreas­on­ably (e.g., no one likes Norman).
  • It does­n’t mat­ter if your organ­isa­tion is doing what it’s sup­posed to be doing, because if you reach enough people, some will find reas­ons to com­plain (i.e. there will always be Normans out there).

If the para­dox of prom­in­ence is the ques­tion, then the Norman Axiom is the answer.

Learn more: The Norman Axiom

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PR Resource: Anatomy of Attention

“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
— Oscar Wilde

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The Anatomy of Attention

Attention is an essen­tial com­pon­ent of pub­lic relations:

  • An organ­isa­tion, starved of atten­tion, trust, and loy­alty, is com­pelled to wage a per­petu­al struggle for its con­tin­ued existence.

And it’s not just organ­isa­tions. We all seem to crave atten­tion in some form or another:

“People want to be loved; fail­ing that admired; fail­ing that feared; fail­ing that hated and des­pised. They want to evoke some sort of sen­ti­ment. The soul shud­ders before obli­vi­on and seeks con­nec­tion at any price.”
— Hjalmar Söderberg (1869−1941), Swedish author

It’s fear of social isol­a­tion— and atten­tion star­va­tion.

But what con­sti­tutes ‘atten­tion’?

“Attention is a com­plex, real neur­al archi­tec­ture (‘RNA’) mod­el that integ­rates vari­ous cog­nit­ive mod­els and brain cen­ters to per­form tasks like visu­al search.”
Source: Trends in cog­nit­ive sci­ences 4Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004

Each of the below terms refers to a spe­cif­ic aspect or type of atten­tion (“men­tal band­width”), a com­plex cog­nit­ive pro­cess. 5Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. … Continue read­ing

Let’s explore dif­fer­ent types of attention:

  • Alertness. This is the state of being watch­ful and ready to respond. It’s the most basic form of atten­tion, rep­res­ent­ing our read­i­ness to per­ceive and pro­cess inform­a­tion from the environment.
  • Sustained atten­tion. This involves focus­ing on a spe­cif­ic task or stim­u­lus over a pro­longed peri­od. It’s cru­cial for tasks that require ongo­ing con­cen­tra­tion, like read­ing or driving.
  • Focused atten­tion. This refers to the abil­ity to con­cen­trate on one par­tic­u­lar stim­u­lus or task while ignor­ing oth­ers. It’s the abil­ity to focus nar­rowly on a single thing.
  • Attentional switch­ing. Also known as task switch­ing or cog­nit­ive flex­ib­il­ity, this involves shift­ing focus from one task to anoth­er. It’s crit­ic­al for mul­ti­task­ing and adapt­ing to chan­ging demands or priorities.
  • Divided atten­tion. This is the abil­ity to pro­cess two or more responses or react to mul­tiple tasks sim­ul­tan­eously. It’s often tested by ask­ing people to per­form two tasks sim­ul­tan­eously, like listen­ing to a con­ver­sa­tion while writing.
  • Attention accord­ing to the super­vis­ory atten­tion­al sys­tem. This concept, derived from cog­nit­ive psy­cho­logy, refers to a high­er-level con­trol sys­tem that reg­u­lates the alloc­a­tion of atten­tion, par­tic­u­larly in situ­ations requir­ing plan­ning or decision-making.
  • Attention as inhib­i­tion. This aspect of atten­tion involves sup­press­ing irrel­ev­ant or dis­tract­ing stim­uli. It’s a cru­cial com­pon­ent of focused atten­tion and self-regulation.
  • Spatial atten­tion. This type of atten­tion focuses on a spe­cif­ic area with­in the visu­al field. It’s like a spot­light that enhances inform­a­tion pro­cessing in a par­tic­u­lar location.
  • Attention as plan­ning. This per­spect­ive views atten­tion as a resource that needs to be alloc­ated effi­ciently, espe­cially in com­plex tasks requir­ing stra­tegic plan­ning and organization.
  • Interference. In the con­text of atten­tion, inter­fer­ence refers to the pro­cess by which irrel­ev­ant inform­a­tion or dis­trac­tions impede the effi­ciency of cog­nit­ive processing.
  • Attention as arous­al. This con­siders atten­tion in the con­text of the gen­er­al level of alert­ness or arous­al. It’s about the read­i­ness of the brain to engage with stim­uli or tasks.
  • Attention accord­ing to the assess­ment tra­di­tion. This refers to meas­ur­ing and eval­u­at­ing atten­tion­al pro­cesses, often in clin­ic­al or edu­ca­tion­al set­tings, to identi­fy atten­tion defi­cits or disorders.

Each type of atten­tion plays a cru­cial role in how we inter­act with and pro­cess inform­a­tion from our envir­on­ment, and under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent aspects is key in fields like psy­cho­logy, neur­os­cience, and education.

Learn more: The Anatomy of Attention

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PR Resource: Free Psychology PR Course

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 Eagly, A. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., & Longo, L. C. (1991). What is beau­ti­ful is good, but…: A meta-ana­lyt­ic review of research on the phys­ic­al attract­ive­ness ste­reo­type. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 109 – 128. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​3​7​/​0​033 – 2909.110.1.109
2 Silfwer, J. (2023, December 17). The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​h​a​l​o​-​e​f​f​e​ct/
3 Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A mod­el of (often mixed) ste­reo­type con­tent: Competence and warmth respect­ively fol­low from per­ceived status and com­pet­i­tion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878 – 902. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​3​7​/​0​022 – 3514.82.6.878
4 Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004
5 Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​i​n​t​e​l​l​.​2​0​0​5​.​0​7​.​001
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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