Members in the Media
From: The Washington Post

Science shows why it’s important to speak — not write — to people who disagree with you

There may be more to the phrase “the voice of reason” than meets the ear. When it comes to controversial ideas, a person’s voice is more persuasive than the written word, according to a new study.

In “The Humanizing Voice: Speech Can Reveal, and Text Conceal, The Presence of a Thoughtful Mind in The Midst of Disagreement” in a recent issue of Psychological Science, Juliana Schroeder of the University of California at Berkeley and faculty at the University of Chicago conducted several experiments exposing volunteers to ideas they agreed or disagreed with. In one, about 300 people watched, listened to or read arguments about war, abortion or music (country or rap — genres people tend to have strong feelings about).

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Comments

i doubt this is GENERALLY true. Take Trump as an example. Some of the things that are expressed in writing are almost enough to make one think he has a point. But when he speaks, his language, his verbal tics, his large number of repetitions and poor grammar, make him come across as an ignorant buffoon.
So, i think, that these experiments would have to match EXACTLY what was said in written form with the verbal form, and this is impossible given the wide variations in tone, dialect, facial expressions, posture etc that exist when an argument is delivered verbally. EVEN if one simply heard an argument as opposed to it being read, I think there are likely any number of factors that may vary in the spoken form that do not exist in the written form, and these factors can work in different directions, such that all possible outcomes can be achieved in exits contrasting verbal vs printed arguments (speech rate being one of them, and the intensity of the speech another, along with whether one sounds educated or not. So, to me–I doubt that this work will live up to its billings–though it might, in the long run, help us identify what it is is speech that matters most re its ability to convince.


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