The Power Of Your Voice

In the article “The Science of Sounding Smart,” Harvard Business Review compared the perception of intelligence with written and vocal versions of the same message. The study revealed that if you want to come across as intelligent, the sound of your voice can help.

HBR recorded Harvard MBA students delivering hiring pitches to job recruiters. They then asked other recruiters to either read a transcription of the student’s pitch or listen to a video or audio recording of the same message. On average, the recruiters perceived the students in the video/audio recordings to be smarter than those from the written transcripts. The study stated, “Evaluators who heard (or heard and saw) MBA students’ job pitches were more impressed than those who merely read transcripts of the same pitches.”

So why should this matter to you?

HBR’s findings are important because they point out how influential the speaking voice can be. According to the article, “Your voice is a tool that has been honed over the course of human evolution to communicate what’s on your mind to others. Without even thinking about it, you naturally flood your listener with cues to your thinking through subtle modulations in tone, pace, volume, and pitch. The listener, attuned to those modulations, naturally decodes these cues. That’s why if you claim to be passionate about your prospective job, for example, hearing your passion may be more convincing than reading your passion. Written text may not convey the same impression as your voice, because it lacks a critical feature: the sound of intellect.”

So when asking for a raise, looking for a new job, selling your products and/or services, or simply communicating something important, consider picking up the phone or meeting in person. The sound of your voice can give you a measurable advantage!