While there is a growing body of research on which and how pitch features are perceived as attractive or likable, there are few studies investigating how the impression of a speaker as attractive or likable affects the speech behavior of his/her interlocutor. Recent studies have shown that perceived attractiveness and likability may not only have an effect on a speaker's pitch features in isolation but also on the prosodic entrainment. It has been shown that how speakers synchronize their pitch features relatively to their interlocutor is affected by such impressions. This study investigates pitch convergence, examining whether speakers become more similar over the course of a conversation depending on perceived attractiveness and/or likability. The expected pitch convergence is thereby investigated on two levels, over the entire conversation (globally) as well as turn-wise (locally). The results from a speed dating experiment with 98 mixed-sex dialogues of heterosexual singles show that speakers become more similar globally and locally over time both in register and range. Furthermore, the degree of pitch convergence is greatly affected by perceived attractiveness and likability with effects differing between attractiveness and likability as well as between the global and the local level.
Our paper presents a phonetic analysis at the intersection of segments and prosodies. We look in detail at the previous finding that high pitch and a clear pronunciation contribute to a speaker's perceived charisma. To that end, we compare two popular CEOs, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, who are known (from informal observations and formal perception experiments alike) to be more or less charismatic speakers, respectively. The results of our between-speaker comparison suggest that high pitch not only involves the F0 level but also the timing and shaping of pitch accents, and that a clear pronunciation not only refers to a large vowel space but also to the timing and shaping of consonant patterns in terms of fewer place assimilations and clearly separated voiced and voiceless stops. Perspectives for future research and implications for the training and evaluation of charismatic speech are discussed.
Charisma is a complex phenomenon. This fact manifests itself not least in an abundance of myths, half-truths, and unanswered research questions. Most charisma myths have not been uncontroversial, and since empirical investigations have advanced quickly over the past years, we take the opportunity in this paper to revisit ten of the most important myths that relate primarily, but not exclusively, to the linguistic and phonetic aspects of charisma, such as the interactions between verbal and nonverbal and between segmental and prosodic cues, as well as the roles of breathing and fundamental frequency in charisma perception. The result is a very diverse picture. Some myths, including very old ones, can be accepted. Others must be rejected in the light of contradicting empirical results. The status of some myths remains unsettled. Furthermore, in discussing that diverse picture, our paper points towards knowledge gaps in research and practice and gives concrete directions as to where to go from here.
Presentations are typically practiced alone while talking to oneself in a silent room. It is not only questionable whether such a rehearsal setting is a proper preparation for a real public-speaking situation. Giving the same talk repeatedly to oneself also bears the risk that speaking "erodes" from the communicative act of conveying a message into a mere mechanical exercise that is neither content-nor audience-oriented. Against this background, it is tested from a digital-humanities perspective whether a VR public-speaking simulation, in which a speaker can rehearse his/her talk in a virtual conference room and in front of a virtual audience, is a suitable and preferable alternative to practicing a presentation on one's own. Prosodic measures of speaking style are analyzed and compared between two groups of 12 speakers, a control group and a VR test group, each of which performed several rounds of practicing. Results suggest that test-group speakers take the VR environment seriously and show, unlike control group speakers, an audience-oriented, more charismatic speaking style, with reduced signs of prosodic erosion due to repeated rehearsal. These findings are discussed in the light of digitalhumanities applications of VR technology.
A particularly persuasive (charismatic) tone of voice has a far reaching influence on people's opinions and actions. However, does this also apply if the charismatic tone of voice is produced by a computer, and if this computer asks people to act against better knowledge? Addressing these questions, an experiment was set up in which 30 locals of Sonderborg/DK were asked to conduct a test drive with a car from the marina to the university campus of the city. The test drive was conducted on the pretext of assessing a newly developed retrofit car navigation system that provides voice instructions only. The locals did not know that the system was only a remote-controlled mockup that, moreover, started giving its driver wrong instructions after about half of the trip. The instructions got successively worse, until the only option to get to the university campus was to make a complete U-turn. We measured the point at which the drivers aborted the test drive in two conditions. In the first one, the system spoke with the more charismatic tone of voice of Steve Jobs. In the second one, it spoke with the less charismatic tone of voice of Mark Zuckerberg. Results show that drivers followed the navigation system's increasingly worsening instructions significantly longer in the Steve Jobs condition, and that the system received higher quality, trustworthiness, and purchase ratings if it spoke with Steve Jobs' tone of voice. Results are discussed in terms of persuasive technology and implications for charisma/leadership analyses and training.
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