Three experiments were designed to investigate the effects and psychological mechanisms of three vocal qualities on persuasion. Experiment 1 (N = 394) employed a 2 (elaboration: high vs. low) × 2 (vocal speed: fast vs. slow) × 2 (vocal intonation: falling vs. rising) between-participants factorial design. As predicted, vocal speed and vocal intonation influenced global perceptions of speaker confidence. Under high-elaboration, vocal confidence biased thought-favorability, which influenced attitudes. Under low-elaboration, vocal confidence directly influenced attitudes as a peripheral cue. Experiments 2 (N = 412) and 3 (N = 397) conceptually replicated the bias and cue effects in Experiment 1, using a 2 (elaboration: high vs. low) × 2 (vocal pitch: raised vs. lowered) between-participants factorial design. Vocal pitch influenced perceptions of speaker confidence as predicted. These studies demonstrate that changes in three vocal properties influence global perceptions of speaker confidence, influencing attitudes via different mediating processes moderated by amount of thought. Evaluation of alternative mediators in Experiments 2 and 3 failed to support these alternatives to global perceptions of speaker confidence.
AlbarracínD.VargasP. (2010). Attitudes and persuasion: From biology to social responses to persuasive intent. In FiskeS. T.GilbertD. T.LindzeyG. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (pp. 394-427). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
2.
AppleW.StreeterL. A.KraussR. M. (1979). Effects of pitch and speech rate on personal attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 715-727.
3.
BakerS. M.PettyR. E. (1994). Majority and minority influence: Source-position imbalance as a determinant of message scrutiny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 5-19.
4.
BrennanS. E.WilliamsM. (1995). The feeling of another’s knowing: Prosody and filled pauses as cues to listeners about the metacognitive states of speakers. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 383-398.
5.
BriñolP.PettyR. E. (2009). Persuasion: Insights from the self-validation hypothesis. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 41, pp. 69-118). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
6.
BriñolP.PettyR. E.TormalaZ. L. (2004). Self-validation of cognitive responses to advertisements. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, 559-573.
7.
BrownB. L.StrongW. J.RencherA. C. (1974). Fifty-four voices from two: The effects of simultaneous manipulations of rate, mean fundamental frequency, and variance of fundamental frequency on ratings of personality from speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 55, 313-318..
8.
BrownB. L.GilesH.ThakerarJ. N. (1985). Speaker evaluations as a function of speech rate, accent, and context. Language & Communication, 5(3), 207-220.
9.
CacioppoJ. T.PettyR. E. (1979). Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive responses, recall, and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 97-109.
10.
CacioppoJ. T.PettyR. E. (1981). Social psychological procedures for cognitive response assessment: The thought listing technique. In MerluzziT.GlassC.GenestM. (Eds.), Cognitive assessment (pp. 309-341). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
11.
ChaikenS.MaheswaranD. (1994). Heuristic processing can bias systematic processing: Effects of source credibility, argument ambiguity, and task importance on attitude judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 460-473.
12.
ClarkJ. K.WegenerD. T.FabrigarL. R. (2008). Attitude accessibility and message processing: The moderating role of message position. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 354-361.
13.
CritesS. L.FabrigarL. R.PettyR. E. (1994). Measuring the affective and cognitive properties of attitudes: Conceptual and methodological issues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 619-634.
14.
EaglyA. H.ChaikenS. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
15.
GilbertD. T.OsborneR. E. (1989). Thinking backward: Some curable and incurable consequences of cognitive busyness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 940-949.
16.
GundersonD. F.HopperR. (1976). Relationship between speech delivery and speech effectiveness. Communication Monographs, 43, 158-165.
17.
HausknechtD. R.MooreD. L. (1986). The effects of time compressed advertising on brand attitude judgments. Advances in Consumer Research, 13, 105-110.
18.
JiangX.PellM. D. (2014). Encoding and decoding confidence information in speech. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference in Speech Prosody, Social and Linguistic Speech Prosody (Social and Linguistic Speech Prosody) (pp. 573-576). ISSN: 2333-2042.
19.
JohnsonW. F.ErndeR. N.SchererK. R.KlinnertM. D. (1986). Recognition of emotion from vocal cues. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 280-283.
20.
JöreskogK. G.SörbomD. (2015). LISREL 9.20 for Windows [Computer software]. Skokie, IL: Scientific Software International.
21.
KimbleC. E.SeidelS. D. (1991). Vocal signs of confidence. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 99-105.
22.
MehrabianA.WilliamsM. (1969). Nonverbal concomitants of perceived and intended persuasiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 37-58.
23.
MillerN.MaruyamaG.BeaberR. J.ValoneK. (1976). Speed of speech and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 615-624.
24.
MooreD. L.HausknechtD.ThamodaranK. (1986). Time compression, response opportunity, and persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 85-99.
25.
PellM. D.MonettaL.PaulmannS.KotzS. A. (2009). Recognizing emotions in a foreign language. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 107-120.
26.
PetrocelliJ. V.TormalaZ. L.RuckerD. D. (2007). Unpacking attitude certainty: Attitude clarity and attitude correctness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 30-41.
27.
PettyR. E.CacioppoJ. T. (1979). Issue-involvement can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1915-1926.
28.
PettyR. E.CacioppoJ. T. (1984). The effects of involvement on responses to argument quantity and quality: Central and peripheral routes to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 69-81.
29.
PettyR. E.CacioppoJ. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York, NY: Academic Press.
30.
PettyR. E.CacioppoJ. T.HeesackerM. (1981). Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 432-440.
31.
PettyR. E.HarkinsS. G.WilliamsK. D. (1980). The effects of group diffusion of cognitive effort on attitudes: An information-processing view. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 81-92.
32.
PettyR. E.RuckerD. D.BizerG. Y.CacioppoJ. T. (2004). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In SeiterJ. S.GassR. H. (Eds.), Perspectives on persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (Vol. 4, pp. 64-89). New York, NY: Pearson.
33.
PettyR. E.WegenerD. T. (1998). Attitude change: Multiple roles for persuasion variables. In GilbertD.FiskeS.LindzeyG. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 323-390). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
34.
RuckerD. D.PreacherK. J.TormalaZ. L.PettyR. E. (2011). Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 359-371.
35.
SchererK. R.LondonH.WolfJ. J. (1973). The voice of confidence: Paralinguistic cues and audience evaluation. Journal of Research in Personality, 7, 31-44.
36.
ShavittS.BrockT. C. (1986). Self-relevant responses in commercial persuasion: Field and experimental tests. In OlsonJ. C.SentisK. (Eds.), Advertising and consumer psychology conferences. Advertising and consumer psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 149-171). New York, NY: Praeger.
37.
SimmonsJ. P.NelsonL. D.SimonsohnU. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22, 1359-1366.
38.
SmithS. M.ShafferD. R. (1991). Celerity and cajolery: Rapid speech may promote or inhibit persuasion through its impact on message elaboration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 663-669.
39.
SmithS. M.ShafferD. R. (1995). Speed of speech and persuasion: Evidence for multiple effects. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1051-1060.
40.
SmithV. L.ClarkH. H. (1993). On the course of answering questions. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 25-38.
41.
StreeterL. A.KraussR. M.GellerV.OlsonC.AppleW. (1977). Pitch changes during attempted deception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 345-350.
42.
TormalaZ. L.RuckerD. D. (2007). Attitude certainty: A review of past findings and emerging perspectives. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 469-492.
43.
WoodallW.BurgoonJ. K. (1983). Talking fast and changing attitudes: A critique and clarification. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 8, 126-142.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
