Lessons learned: Sounding confident can help or hurt your message
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When you’re prepping for a presentation, you probably think about your slides, your script, or your pacing. But what about the way your voice changes at the end of your sentences?
A recent study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin explored whether the tone you use at the end of your sentences influences how confident you sound and how people respond to your message.
Across three experiments, participants listened to recordings of persuasive messages about public policies, including a proposal for a tax on less nutritious foods and a student tuition program. The researchers edited the recordings so speakers ended their sentences in one of two ways:
- Falling tone: The speaker’s voice dropped slightly at the end of a statement, making it sound more definitive.
- Rising tone: The speaker’s voice rose at the end of a statement, making it sound more like a question or less certain.
They also varied whether the argument for the policy was strong or weak by changing the quality of the evidence and the credibility of the sources.
What they learned: People consistently perceive speakers who end sentences with a falling tone as more confident. But that confidence doesn’t automatically make a message more persuasive. Instead, it encourages people to think more carefully about the message. When the arguments are strong, that extra attention makes the message more persuasive. But when the arguments are weak, that same extra attention can reduce persuasion because listeners are more likely to notice the flaws.
Why it matters: We’ve all heard “fake it till you make it.” This study suggests that’s not always the best strategy. Sounding confident doesn’t make a weak argument more convincing. It makes people pay closer attention to it.
➡️ Idea worth stealing: Let your tone fall at the end of your statements to sound more confident (watch this video to help you practice). But remember, confidence makes people scrutinize your message more closely, not less.
What to watch: Whether future research finds similar effects in settings with different expectations for vocal delivery. For example, people may respond differently to the same vocal cues when watching a television newscast, scrolling social media, or listening to someone speak in person.
