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Which is the correct use of voice and hand gestures when it comes about giving a public speech? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Effectiveness, Attractiveness, and Emotional Response to Voice Pitch and Hand Gestures in Public Speaking”, by Rodero, E. (2022), in which the author carries out a study to know how the variations in the tone of voice intensity, and the frequency and exaggeration of hand gestures influence the effectiveness of public speeches.

When we see and hear a person speaking, we can distinguish two distinct parts of the communication that are very important: what the person says and how he or she says it, that is, the content and the form of the message. Or, in other words, verbal and nonverbal communication, both equally important. 

The author decides to focus, in this case, on nonverbal communication, since every part of our body, every movement, facial expression or variation of tone, has a meaning. In fact, our brain can create an impression about a person giving a speech in just milliseconds, just by looking at his/her face, his/her body, or listening to his/her voice. 

We have already mentioned on numerous occasions that there are different channels of nonverbal communication. On the one hand, we have everything related to kinesics, such as gestures, postures or movement; there is also paralanguage, which are the features of the voice; proxemics, which refers to space and distance management; the appearance of people, such as clothing, jewelry, even skin color. 

Nonverbal communication signals can influence perception and message processing. We use our body and voice changes to reinforce or qualify what we say, convey emotions, attitudes, intentions, regulate the flow of communication….

According to experts, charismatic leaders use variations in tone of voice, eye contact, gestures and facial expressions to differentiate themselves from the rest. The way television presenters, for example, use their voices and gestures when speaking in public is crucial to engage the audience, attract their attention and provoke emotions. 

This research analyzes the effectiveness, appeal and emotional response of different strategies related to tone of voice and hand gestures in public speeches. But why these two elements?

First of all, voice plays a very important role in our social relationships, and therefore in persuasive messages, such as public speeches. How we use our voice is called prosody, and it represents the set of characteristics we use when speaking. 

One of the most important components of prosody is intonation, yet research on the influence of intonation variations when it comes to public speaking is scarce, despite its importance. 

In 2011, a study found that substantial changes in pitch increased persuasiveness and credibility, and in 2021 it was concluded that a higher and more varied pitch in the voice is related to greater charisma. In public speeches, a moderate emphatic intonation is considered the most effective, captures more attention and provokes greater excitement, improving comprehension, due to its dynamism. 

However, although these changes are very positive, excessive variations could be counterproductive and make the speech exaggerated and unnatural, so the author’s hypothesis is that the moderate strategy would be the best option. 

On the other hand, we have hand gestures. According to experts, people who use hand gestures are perceived as more effective, persuasive, credible, dominant, outgoing, sociable and honest. Therefore, there is a tendency to associate positive traits with hand movements. 

A study conducted with TED talks concluded that hand gestures make the speaker appear more convincing. However, as with the tone of voice, too much intensity could be overdone and cause distractions. 

For the study, a total of 48 videos of short speeches were recorded in which three variations of voice pitch (soft, moderate, intense) and three intensities of hand gestures (soft, moderate, intense) were combined. 120 university students formed the study sample. 

The findings showed that the nonverbal communication cues examined were relevant in determining the effectiveness and attractiveness of a public speech.

The strategy with moderate pitch variations, in terms of tone of voice, was the most effective and attractive, followed by the high variation style and, in third place, few variations. The result is in line with the findings of previous studies.

A balanced strategy with tone changes, neither too few nor too many, is perceived as more dynamic and therefore more effective, since a more expressive voice is always perceived better than a dull voice, and brings charisma. 

As for gestures, it was exactly the same. The moderate strategy was the most successful, followed by the strategy of many gestures and, in last position, few gestures. 

By combining strategies related to voice tone and gestures, the author obtained the novel finding that, when the voice uses moderate variations in tone, both moderate gestures and exaggerated gestures are effective. 

The results of this study allow us to advance in the analysis of nonverbal cues, especially, as is logical, in the study of voice tone and gestures. The author points out the need to devote greater efforts to studying the effects of both channels combined, which, as we have seen, can offer promising answers to interesting questions. 

If you want to know more about nonverbal behavior and how it affects personal relationships, visit our Master of Science in Nonverbal and Deceptive Behavior, which you can take in English or Spanish, with special grants for readers of the Nonverbal Communication Blog.

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Silence and hopelessness in students: what can teachers do to prevent them? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Students’ Classroom Silence and Hopelessness: The impact of Teachers’ Immediacy on Mainstream Education” de Juma, O.; Husiyin, M.; Akhat, A. y Habibulla, I. (2022), in which authors think about and analyze the implications of silence and hopelessness in the educative context and how teachers can act to prevent their negative effects. 

Students’ feelings are a key part of their individual well-being and, obviously, of their mental health, affecting their inspiration, their attention, their school success…

On the one hand, we have constructive feelings, such as joy, pride, which raise the students’ inspiration to learn and their attention. On the other hand, there are destructive feelings, such as stress, exasperation, and boredom, which can jeopardize education.

When students are facing the possibility of failing, they may be dealing with destructive feelings, such as humiliation, hopelessness, and may not be able to participate like other peers in learning.

Since feelings mark the learning process so much, it is important to obtain information about them to create an educational environment that is emotionally healthy and that can improve the mental health and performance of students.

If we talk about destructive feelings, on the one hand, we have dejection or hopelessness. Students who suffer from it can avoid harming themselves with course activities, leading to greatly reduced performance and learning. It also reduces motivation for life, and this can lead to violent behavior.

That is, hopelessness increases when the conviction that a good future awaits decreases. It also causes an increase in negativity about life.

Another topic in learning, which has been more explored than others in general, is the problem of silence. It is a broad phenomenon, which has become an obstacle to the creation of bonds between educators and students, which influences the achievement of the objectives of the class as a whole and of each student in particular.

Silence can be positive, but its negative interpretations are certainly more common, and a negative classroom environment often affects performance.

Teachers have made great efforts to engage students in activities and improve the effectiveness of their education, but many students are still not interested in participating in classes. What usually happens is that these young people are hesitant to participate, not ready to respond, inactive and sometimes overly dependent on teachers.

With all of this, we conclude that educators want to successfully instruct their students, so they need to know how to build inspiration in their classroom and encourage their students to participate. To achieve this, verbal and also non-verbal practices can be configured.

This is where the concept of immediacy appears. It refers to a physical, expressive or affective friendship or familiarity that is confirmed through constructive behaviors, and in the educational field, it is considered a way of interaction between teachers and students that brings many benefits; in fact, other previous studies have shown that immediacy is, actually, a way to improve communication and bonds between teachers and students.

Immediacy is essential, therefore, for educators to reduce students’ emotional filters, as well as change and improve their health and behavior through teaching and training.

Some of the verbal techniques of immediacy are providing students with immediate feedback, having conversations before and after classes, calling students by their own name, sharing experiences, giving personal opinions, among others.

Verbal immediacy techniques refer to messages that show compassion, frankness, kindness, reward, acclaim, inclusion, comedy, and above all, willingness to involve students in the group.

But in addition, sympathy, body language, gestures of friendship and support are also used, which are non-verbal elements and besides have a positive influence on the relationship between teachers and students, motivating the latter to be more active in the classroom and to be more involved.

Non-verbal immediacy would imply non-oral attitudes that promote intimacy, especially emotional, and attract the attention of students. In other words, the most important thing about non-verbal elements applied to immediacy is that they improve the emotional and mental closeness of teachers and students.

They can include gestures, facial expressions, body movements, clothing and appearance, smiling, physical distance…

Therefore, after reviewing previous literature, authors conclude that improving teachers’ immediate development practices will promote students’ stress tolerance, self-confidence, and motivation, thus reducing their levels of despondency and improvement of your well-being in general.

If you want to know more about nonverbal behavior and how it influences our personal relationships, visit our Nonverbal Communication Certificate, a 100% online program certificated by the Heritage University (Washington) with special discounts for readers of the Nonverbal Communication Blog.

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In Non Verbal Communication Business

Which are the effects of being dominant or passive in a negotiation? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Towards Understanding the Effect of Voice on Human-Agent Negotiation”, by Mania, J.; Miedema, F.; Browne, R.; Broekens, J. and Oertel, C. (2020), in which authors wonder how the dominance in the voice affects negotiations. 

With the development of technology, virtual agents and social robots increasingly integrated into society, it is important to know the effects of nonverbal behaviors when we are interacting.

A very interesting area in which to apply this knowledge is negotiation, where social robots are being used more and more frequently.

A negotiation is made up of several elements, ranging from negotiation tactics to the influence of the personality of the one who negotiates. One point that authors consider important to mention, is that negotiation between humans has tended to focus much more on tactics than on this last point.

In recent years, an increasing amount of research has focused on equipping virtual negotiation agents with human-comparable social skills. An example is that they are increasingly capable of adapting their negotiation tactics according to the behavior shown by the human.

Attention has also been paid to endowing the virtual agent with the ability to express social cues such as dominance. Through implementing nonverbal signals from different channels, such as body posture, facial expressions, gaze, head tilt, among others, it was shown that dominance, as a sign of power, can also affect negotiations with virtual agents.

Although many studies focused on this topic emphasize the importance of voice, it has rarely been studied explicitly. In addition, the negotiator’s perception of the other person’s voice, and how this affects the negotiation process, has not been studied either.

The main objective of this study is to explore the effects of vocal dominance on human-to-human negotiation.

Dominance can be defined as communicative behavior used to influence others and to extend one’s power.

It has been shown that hearing people are able to infer attitudes and affective states of the speaker based solely on acoustic characteristics, and to do so, moreover, with an accuracy greater than luck levels. It is known that vocal variability, volume, interruptions, pauses, speech speed, pitch and vocal relaxation are essential aspects to transmit or not vocal mastery.

In interactions between people, the pleasant and warm communication style with a high degree of courtesy is perceived as less dominant. The person exhibiting this behavior will be perceived as generous, and will expect his/her opponent to reward him/her with warmth and a good atmosphere in the negotiation. In addition, these people tend to have a behavior that facilitates opening up to the opponent and increases the probability of reaching agreements. However, him/her is also perceived as less competent and easier to exploit.

Behaviors perceived as dominant achieve greater gains in individual negotiations. A tougher and firmer communication style generally results in better economic outcomes and more beneficial counteroffers.

To examine the influence of verbal expression of dominance, concession tactics, and the moderating effect of negotiation type on negotiation outcomes and perception, an online experiment was conducted.

In it, two types of tactics were used: the individualistic and the neutral. The individualist belongs to the group of competitive negotiation and therefore more dominant; in the neutral tactic small concessions are made and a more collaborative behavior is shown. In addition, vocal dominance and concession tactics were used as factors of interest.

Each participant was asked to play a negotiation game and at the end was asked to explain his/her opinion about the simulation.

The results confirmed, to a small extent, the expectations derived from previous studies on negotiations between humans. Following the findings of Belkin et al., where dominance leads to higher profits, and the findings of Rosenthal, where dominant negotiation agents are more persuasive, manipulated vocal dominance was expected to lead to better negotiation outcomes.

However, this did not happen that way. In the study, the level of dominance was deduced from the voice alone, without additional cues such as facial expressions or gestures. As a consequence, the effects of dominance might have been milder.

Furthermore, although the individualist tactic and the neutral tactic were used, there were no significant differences in how one or the other influenced the usefulness of the agreement.

It is true that participants perceived the individualistic tactic as more unfair than the neutral one. In the first, they perceived that the opponent was destined to achieve only their own goals.

The participants perceived differences with respect to the vocal domain. The group that negotiated with the agent with high vocal dominance finished the negotiation in fewer rounds. When the low vocal dominance agent was interacted with, the subjects felt that there was more to gain and therefore negotiated in more rounds.

In future studies, authors point out that it would be interesting to include additional multimodal cues, such as gaze and facial expressions.

If you want to know more about nonverbal behavior and how it influences our personal relationships, visit our Nonverbal Communication Certificate, a 100% online program certificated by the Heritage University (Washington) with special discounts for readers of the Nonverbal Communication Blog. 

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