"Most people don't really listen to what other people have to say," he says.
"When, like me, you're having to concentrate so hard on what other people say, you probably hear a lot more."
The 24-year-old Wellingtonian, who has just been awarded a $25,000 Fulbright Scholarship and the $15,000 Quest for Excellence Scholarship by the National Foundation for the Deaf, will shortly begin his PhD in psychology at Arizona University.
Mr Hall, who has a double degree with honours in psychology and economics from Otago University, will map the neurological processes behind everyday decision-making.
Having battled hearing loss since early childhood, he is particularly attuned to the problems some people have "making sense of the world".
"Every day we make thousands of decisions, most unconsciously," he said.
"I am going to be looking at the physical brain to trace those processes to work out why people choose to do what they do."
The weakness of much economic theory was that it was based on models that "assume people will behave logically".
"But we know people aren't logical."
Mr Hall said his research was not about "mind control", though he conceded there was the risk it could be hijacked by marketers who were very interested in what decisions people made.
His dream is to develop a tool for matching people to the jobs that would best suit them.
As a policy analyst for the Labour Department for the past 18 months, Mr Hall has become increasingly interested in the problem of New Zealand's low productivity, believing a happy worker is a productive worker.
Mr Hall, who has 82 per cent hearing loss, said he would never have been able to start a career - or even finish his education or enjoy a "normal" social life - without the help of hearing aids.
He has worn hearing aids in both ears since the age of nine.
"The last thing you want as a kid is to stand out, so I used to to avoid wearing my hearing aids whenever I could.
"But I worked out that people didn't notice my disability so much when I wore them because I could actually communicate.
"It was not wearing them that set me apart."
Throughout school he attended mainstream classes and received no special assistance.
"I could cocoon myself and just say, `Poor me, I'm deaf, the world owes me'.
"But the only thing I'm owed is the same chances as everyone else and that's what we get in New Zealand - it's up to me what I do with them."
Foundation executive manager Marianne Schumacher said it was this sort of attitude that had inspired the establishment of the Quest for Excellence scholarship in the first place.
"Phillip is a fantastic role model for the 450,000 New Zealanders who have difficulty hearing," she said.Labels: academy awards, career training, education online, financial aid, free education, high school, student loans, study abroad |
