The scientists from the University of Michigan have proved that the widespread belief about the ability of a person to influence the interlocutor with the intonation of the speech has a strong scientific base, and the ability of women to convince, in fact, may depend on how they express their point view.
During the research, the scientists have observed the participants of various telephone conversations, and the aim of these talks was, for example, selling or campaigning.
In total, the experts have analyzed 1380 talks, particularly in terms of the speech tempo and the most frequently used words. As it turned out, the most successful conversations were those, in which the sales manager or the campaign advisor was talking with the tempo of 3.5 words per second on average. In such cases, the participants of the conversation were much more likely to agree on the proposed products or services. People who talked too slowly were perceived by potential customers as rather incompetent or too pedantic.
On the other hand, the leading author of the experiment, a sociology professor Jose Benko, said that an extremely fast speech tempo left a not very pleasant impression on the listeners: such interviewers were perceived by their opponents as willing to splurge and not providing correct information. In addition, natural pauses between words created positive associations, if their frequency was an average of 4 to 5 per minute. Affectedness, however, led to a negative effect.
Source of the image: Photl.
