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Science Quickly

Lower Your Voice Pitch to Persuade

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2016

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Study volunteers whose voices deepened during a group debate tended to be more influential and convincing. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp.j. That's y-A-K-U-Lt.C-O.jp. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.6

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Talata. Got a minute?

0:39.3

YouTube's full of videos that promise more power and influence.

0:43.3

All you gotta do is...

0:45.3

Get a deeper voice.

0:46.3

How to have a deep voice.

0:48.3

You don't have to live with a small, weak voice.

0:50.3

It's important to make every effort to lower the pitch of your voice.

0:53.3

Just because your voice isn't a deep baritone. But it turns out you may already deepen your voice, without even realizing it, just like you already use nonverbal cues, like crossing your arms behind your head.

1:04.0

So we think just like those kinds of nonverbal postures, changes in voices probably happen without us thinking, without our conscious awareness.

1:12.6

Joey Chang, a social psychologist at the University of Illinois.

1:15.6

She and her team suspected people who do deepen their voices while speaking might hold more sway in an argument.

1:21.6

So they tested the theory by recording 191 university students, as they debated in small groups about which

1:29.3

equipment would be most essential after a disaster on the moon. Is it oxygen tanks or heating

1:34.8

units? It's an old psychology game. They found that group members who lowered the pitch of their

1:39.5

voices during the game, both men and women, were more likely to rally the group around their ideal

1:45.1

supply list. They were also rated as more influential by team members and outside observers.

1:50.0

And this approach ends up being effective in that if you lower your voice, chances are you'll

...

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