How your speech patterns affect your ability to influence others. (repost from r/cogsci)

2011-05-15T20:56:04+00:00

I work retail, selling TV's and services to people. I'm going to incorporate different speech patterns into my job for the next few days for customers to see if I perform any better by speaking slower, pausing, etc. Should be interesting.

NickLee808 · 2011-05-15T22:11:17+00:00

As someone who has worked two years at a call centre, I started my first few months being incredibly nervous and following a script where upon reviewing my calls, realised my voice sounded incredibly fake, despite using intonations (granted they were quite generic).

However, once I had the script memorised, I became a lot more confident with the understanding of the material. Not only did I not need to look at the script anymore, I was running off complete improv and having actual conversations with the prospects. My sales began to skyrocket and I was actually enjoying the calls instead of feeling nervous, which gave my voice automatic colour.

So how does this translate to seddit?

Go in with no script.
Be cool and enjoy the now.
Don't preoccupy yourself with the goal.
Above all, practise.

TofuTofu · 2011-05-15T16:06:38+00:00

Excellent link. Nice to see some real science sometimes :)

The study, funded by the US National Science Foundation and presented to the American Association for Public Opinion Research, also found people thought too much variation in pitch "sounds artificial" and "like people are trying too hard".

Finally, the team found interviewers who paused frequently - around four or five times a minute - were more successful than those who were fluent.

The team suggest they sounded "too scripted".

Welp, we can pack it in guys. They've settled the debate on canned openers lol.

2011-05-15T21:27:45+00:00

Converting to PUA skills; practice openers at 3.5 words a second, and pause for effect about every 10 seconds.

Settra · 2011-05-16T07:33:39+00:00

Heh, I saw this on my front page, and I was about to x-post this to here..

L0aded · 2011-05-16T13:51:37+00:00

Is the sample size only 100? That's really not a big enough sample size to say anything conclusive about the results, there are two many variables.

revolved · 2011-05-15T23:48:07+00:00

Keep in mind this article is from the BBC, depending on where you live, YMMV

eablokker · 2011-05-15T20:15:08+00:00

it's not about what you say, but how you say it

It is one thing that this is said in PUA, another thing when it is said as a "research conclusion" by an "expert". I call bullshit: no interaction effect (content*style) of what you say and how you say it on persuasion? Really? I'd love to see their stats.

Title	How your speech patterns affect your ability to influence others. (repost from r/cogsci)
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	43
Comments	12
Date	May 15, 2011 3:27 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/seduction
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/hbvc5/how_your_speech_patterns_affect_your_ability_to/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/seduction/how-your-speech-patterns-affect-your-ability-to.1318293 https://theredarchive.com/post/1318293

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