You’re standing in the wings, getting ready to go on stage to give an important speech. If you’re like most people, you’re just a little nervous at this point. Well, OK, maybe more than a little nervous. Maybe you’re terrified. And maybe you’re asking yourself, how do I sound more intelligent, confident, dominant, and attractive than I really am in order to succeed with this audience?
Fortunately for you, Susan M. Hughes, from the Department of Psychology at Albright College, has carried out a neat little research study to help you do exactly that.
The results are more nuanced and surprising than you might expect.
Let’s say you want to sound more intelligent. That one is relatively easy: simply talk more slowly. We’ve all noticed the speakers who rarely pause for breath, filling up all the available airwaves with their talk, as if afraid of having the microphone taken away from them. Well, apparently, we rate that torrent of sound as a lack of expertise, rather than a sign of it. So, to increase the estimations of your IQ by the audience, slow down, build in pauses, and breathe. In addition, talking a little louder also appears to help to make you sound more intelligent.
What about confidence? There’s a difference between men and women here – to sound more confident, both men and women talk louder, but men move the pitch of their voices higher, and women lower.
And then there’s dominance. Not surprisingly, perhaps, louder and slower helps here too, for both men and women. The main difference from confidence comes in that both sexes’ voices are perceived to be more dominant when they are made lower.
Finally, attractiveness is easier for one gender than the other. Women make themselves sound more attractive by lowering their voices and making them sound huskier. The same move is not available to men, however – neither sex thinks men are more attractive if they make their voices lower. Good news for tenors, then!
In sum, you can improve the way people rate the intelligence and dominance of your voice, man or women, by speaking more loudly, slowly, and with a lower pitch. Confidence is the outlier for men, requiring a higher voice.
There’s a further challenge when thinking about the voice as an instrument for projecting your power to an audience. And that is implied by the scenario at the start of this post: your nerves. One of the less obvious results of stage fright is that you tense up your vocal chords, and that pushes your voice higher, and makes you talk faster. You need to overcome, therefore, that natural tendency, thanks to performance anxiety, to talk too fast and with a squeaky voice.
Here’s a simple trick to help you fight this problem. Record a few snippets of yourself talking normally, in conversation, on your mobile phone. Then, when you get ready to go on stage, play that brief recording in your ear. The sound of your own voice, relaxed, will help you calm down, and get your pitch right.
Then, breathe deeply, walk out on stage, and – taking your time – start talking in a voice loud enough to tell the whole room that you got this.
I was a little nervous at this point, so that is the big problem for me. But your suggestion is very helpful and motivating for me. Thank you so much and keep writing.
Thanks, James — keep practicing. The nerves do get better if you rehearse, breathe, and practice regularly.
Good morning Nick
Thank you for your post. I am guilty, I am ashamed to say, I am a Voiceist – I have tuned out on a speaker very quickly due to the sound of their voice. I have sat there fighting to listen to very good content but my brain wins and I tune out because of the voice which grates too much.
I am consoled by Friedrich Nietzsche “We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.”
I found Roger Love – the voice of voices, both for singers and speakers.
Kindest regards
John
Good morning, John — I’m shocked, shocked to discover that you’re a Voiceist. If I wasn’t one too, I’d consider stronger wording. And Roger Love is a great recommendation — everyone should do his book and CD.
Thank you, Nick, for another insightful article. I find the “uptalk” epidemic particularly grating. It’s a credibility killer. No matter how much coaching one does to raise a person’s awareness of this and help them eliminate it, it persists. Any tips?
Kindest regards
Bruna
Thanks, Bruna. Uptalk is the most prevalent and annoying verbal tic today. I’ve been known to treat anything said in a voice that turns up at the end of the sentence as a question, as in, “Hi, my name is Bruna(?).” “Really? Why don’t you know your name? Did your parents not give you one?”
My momma gave me this advice for presentations, “If you think you are talking too slow, you are talking slowly enough. If you can hear your voice echo off the back wall, you are talking loudly enough.” The elderly ladies liked listening to us read from the pulpit in our congregation because the could hear and understand us.
Thanks, Tina — I love what your Momma said. She was right!