holmes speech

1. Elizabeth Holmes
& Theranos
Lauren Byrum
Figure 1
Elizabeth Holmes
Note. From “Elizabeth Holmes” by Tali Mackay, n.d.,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Elizabeth_Holmes_2016.jpeg. CC BY-SA 4.0.

2. Research Question
"What methods of persuasion did Elizabeth
Holmes use in order to deceptively gain the trust
and support of the medical community, financial
investors, and the general public for her medical
device company, Theranos?"

3. Literature Review
• Ho’s study found that Holmes combined
different methods in order to make her
persuasion more effective.
• Mallery held that these comparisons enabled a
blind trust of Holmes by the public because of
the reputation and accomplishments of Jobs.

4. Methodology
Hugh Rank’s Intensify and Downplay Persuasion
Theory
"A pattern useful to analyze communication,
persuasion, and propaganda. All people intensify
and downplay as they communicate in words,
gestures, numbers, etc."

5. Methods of Intensification
1. Repetition
2. Association
3. Composition

6. Methods of Downplay
1. Omission
2. Diversion
3. Confusion

7. Results
Image Maintenance
• Lifestyle
• Advisory Board
Medical Industry
• Lack of third-party testing
• FDAApproval
• Proficiency tests

8. Applying Rank’s Intensify and Downplay
Association
• Steve Jobs
• Lifestyle
• FDA
• Advisory Board
Confusion
• Branding and marketing of
Theranos
Diversion
• Board of Advisors
Omission
• Proficiency tests

9. Future Research
1. Wrong Diagnoses
2. Walgreens Partnership
3. Early Life

10. "Lying and dishonesty never work – and it is a
great human tragedy that people think dishonesty
can work 'for a good motive'." -Ayn Rand
We must be vigilant seekers and defenders of the
truth.

11. References
Bilton, N. (2019, February 21). “She never looks back”: Inside Elizabeth Holmes’s final months at Theranos. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/inside-elizabeth-holmess-final-
months-at-theranos
Carreyrou, J. (2015, October 16). Hot startup Theranos has struggled with its blood-test technology. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901
HBO. (2019, January 24). The inventor: Out for blood in Silicon Valley (2019) | official digital tease | HBO. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7kFev4rlNY
Ho, J. (2021). “I found what I felt like I was born to do”: Exploring corporate legitimacy through video interviews with Elizabeth Holmes. Discourse, Context & Media, 39.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2020.100461
Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2016). Stealth research and Theranos. JAMA, 316(4), 389. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.6986
Leuty, R. (2018, August 8). “Ultimately, Elizabeth made the decisions”: A look inside Theranos’ ineffective board. San Francisco Business Times.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/08/07/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-board-kovacevich-shultz.html
Mallery, A. (2017). Searching for Steve Jobs: Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and the dangers of the origin story. Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology, and Society, 10(3), 1–11.
https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/1017
Mills, H. (2000). Artful persuasion: How to command attention, change minds, and influence people (1st ed.). Amacom.
Rand, A. (1997). Letters of Ayn Rand (M. S. Berliner, Ed.; Reprint ed.). NAL.
Rank, Hugh. (1977). Intensify/downplay. College English, 39(1), 109-111. doi:10.2307/375826