The Face Can Fool But The Voice Has No Choice

For years we have been told most communication is non-verbal…perhaps as much as 93%.  There are challenges to that including a recent study out of Yale.

This has ramifications for those of us who talk for a living on the radio as well as in sales, customer service and more.  The new advice is to really know what someone is feeling, you need to focus on the sound of their voice.

The point being that sometimes people are hard to read in which case scientists now say to close your eyes and listen.

Researchers conducted five different experiments, and the one common denominator among the results was that those subjects who only listened without observing were on average, able to identify the emotions being experienced by others with increased accuracy. It didn’t matter what their faces were selling, their voices provided the clues that the listeners were buying.

Study leaders say there are two possible reasons why voice communication was more telling than facial expressions: 1) that we have more practice using facial expressions to mask emotions, and 2) trying to carry out two complex tasks such as watching and listening at the same time compromised the ability to do both.

Bottom line, Despite what the Eagles sang, maybe you CAN hide your lyin’ eyes and maybe that smile is more than a thin disguise, but now we know we have another choice and you just can’t hide the sound of your voice!