Talking to Convince Others

A study by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan analyzed how different speech characteristics influence people’s decisions.

We studied 1,400 telephone calls to try to persuade people to take part in phone surveys.

The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, analyzed the introductory call 100 interviewers conducted at the university, both men and women.

We studied the speed and fluency of speech, inflections in the tone of voice and how successful were these factors in trying to convince people to participate in the survey.

Moderately fast
“The interviewers spoke briskly, at a rate of 3.5 words per second, were much more successful in persuading people that they spoke too fast or too slow,” explains José Benki, the expert in psychology of language conducted the study.

According to the researchers, people who talk too fast is perceived as a “charlatan”, someone who is trying to deceive you, and people who talk too slow is seen as “not very intelligent” or “excessively pedantic.”

So says this finding on the rate of speech is meaningless.

The research, funded by the National Science Foundation United States, also found that the tone of voice is important.

“We assumed that the interviewers who sounded lively and cheerful with many inflections in the tone of his voice, would be more successful,” says José Benki.

“But in reality, the results showed only a marginal effect on the success of the interviewers who used inflections to talk.”

“Perhaps the variations in tone may help some interviewers, but not others. However, too much inflection in the tone sounds artificial, as if people were trying too hard.”

“So that the end is counterproductive and makes people more reluctant,” he adds.

The study also investigated whether the tone of voice had some influence in trying to persuade people.

According to the scientist, the tone of gravity or acuteness of the voice quality of speech is very much based on gender of the individual and is influenced by body size and the corresponding size of the larynx.

The research results showed that men with high voices interviewers did worse than men with deep voices.

But there were no clear differences on the importance of voice tone of the interviewers.

Finally, Dr. Benki investigated the importance of using breaks to try to persuade people. And there are obvious differences were found.

Speak slowly
The interviewers who used frequent, short breaks were more successful than those with perfect fluidity.

“When some people talk they do, naturally, about 4 or 5 breaks per minute,” explains Benki.

“These delays can be quiet or can have sound, but that’s the pace that seems to sound more natural in this context.”

“The interviewers made no pause had the worst results convincing people to participate in the survey. We think this is because it sounded too studied.”

He adds that “people who break too to talk is seen as awkward. But it was interesting that even the interviewers with less fluid speech performed better than those who had a perfect fluid.”

The study, experts say, confirms that “what matters is not what you say but how you say it.”

“For example, we have all experienced situations where someone’s words can be perceived in many ways, but the tone offended us,” says Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight, professor of phonetics at the University of the City of London.

“When we speak, we are not always aware of the various ways in which prosody (the pronunciation and accent) can have an effect on the message.”

The expert added that the investigation “is useful” because it identifies some of the practical ways in which people trying to convince others to do something, they can improve their chances of achieving the objective.