Stylistic concomitants of persuasion in conversations

Sherblom, John C.; Reinsch, Norbert

doi:10.1080/01463378109369390

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Even when two messages contain very similar content, their effectiveness may vary based on the specific words used (Pennebaker & King, 1999). Such variation not only reveals important information about the communicator and the subject (Pennebaker, 1993;Pennebaker & Francis, 1996), but also affects the different inferences audiences make, which in turn influences both their evaluations of messages and subsequent responses (Berry et al, 1997;Parkinson, 1981;Sherblom & Reinsch, 1981).…”

Section: Concrete Language and Investor Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Give it to us straight (most of the time): Top managers’ use of concrete language and its effect on investor reactions

Pan

McNamara

Lee

et al. 2017

Strategic Management Journal

103

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Research Summary: Building on the communications and linguistics literatures, we explore the language attributes managers use in interactions with investors and the subsequent reactions of investors. Specifically, we hypothesize that top managers’ use of concrete language attributes in communication with investors broadly associates with positive investor reactions. We further posit that this relationship will be moderated by the level of firm risk. Our results support our hypotheses and, thus, offer important insights to the impression management literature. First, subtle elements of managerial communication can have significant impression management consequences. More specifically, language concreteness is a key language attribute that generally induces positive investor responses. Finally, the effectiveness of language concreteness is conditional on the informational environment of the firm. Managerial Summary: How can managers communicate in a way that presents the firm more positively or reduces the negativity associated with perceived firm risks? Our findings indicate that choosing appropriate persuasive language features in interactions with investors can help a firm manage its impressions. Specifically, we find that top managers’ use of concrete language that provides details and specific information in communication with investors, in general, garners positive investor reactions. Further, the effectiveness of top managers’ use of concrete language depends on investor concerns. More specifically, we find that when a firm is seen as having a riskier profile, using concrete language helps induce a more positive investor response; while when a firm is seen as low risk, using abstract language may be more beneficial.

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Section: Concrete Language and Investor Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Give it to us straight (most of the time): Top managers’ use of concrete language and its effect on investor reactions

Pan

McNamara

Lee

et al. 2017

Strategic Management Journal

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Each sample was approximately 200 words in length. Samples of 200 words have been shown to be of adequate length to produce stable measures (Sherblom & Reinsch, 1981;Jordan, Street, & Putnam, 1983). Moreover, the two samples-taken together-were of adequate duration to investigate the entry phase of the interaction.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The diversity (type-token ratio, mean word length) and immediacy (verb/ auxiliary verb, temporal, possibility) measures were obtained from these conversational samples with a text-analyzing computer program: LEXICON (Sherblom & Reinsch, 1981). All data were subjected to an ArcSin transformation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spoken Language Indices of Uncertainty

Owayne

Rheenen

1984

Human Comm Res

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he present study investigates two propositions of uncertainty reduction theory and examines their effects on language use. Linguistic diversity and verbal immediacy were measured in two conversational segments taken from different periods of the entry phase of 72 interviews. A discriminant analysis function accounted for 19.36% of the variance in the measures. A sign test of the discriminant function coefficients showed a significantly consistent shift, across individuals, f r o m the earlier conversational segment to the later. The results are consistent with the propositions of uncertainty reduction. Implicaiions of this interpretation are discussed.

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“…Mean word length indicates the average number of letters per word used in a conversation and has been shown to be inversely related to the level of emotional arousal (Sherblom & Reinsch, 1981). The onset of schizophrenic disorders is associated with highly charged emotionality among family members (Brown, Birley, & Wing, 1972).…”

Section: Measures Of Communicative Stylementioning

confidence: 99%