🎤 What makes a person captivating when they speak?

A new study from McGill University's School of Communication Sciences and Disorders indicates that both the content and the manner of speaking play an important, different, and complementary role.

The researchers found that when a person tries to appear captivating, they tend to speak louder and with a higher pitch, which generally leads listeners to perceive them more favorably. However, the study also reveals that a listener's desire to continue a conversation depends mainly on their interest in the topic being discussed.


"We were surprised to see a clear distinction: the social impressions evoked by the speaker - notably friendliness, competence, and attractiveness - were mainly influenced by their manner of speaking, whereas the desire to continue the conversation depended mainly on the topic of the exchange," explains Marcos Domínguez-Arriola, a PhD student and lead author of the study.

"An interesting topic can make a first exchange captivating, but a captivating manner of speaking could be more decisive in making others want to interact with us again," he continues. "This distinction helps explain why some conversations provide immediate satisfaction without leading to lasting bonds, while others, although less exciting, still foster the development of deep relationships."

Characteristics of a captivating speaker

In a first experiment, Marcos Domínguez-Arriola and Professor Marc D. Pell recruited 20 participants, 10 women and 10 men, and had them record a series of pre-written anecdotes. The 160 short, conversational anecdotes had previously been classified by another group of participants into one of two categories: "interesting" or "boring."

Participants recorded each assigned anecdote twice: once in a neutral tone, and then in a "captivating" tone, as if they were trying to establish a positive connection with their interlocutor. The researchers then used acoustic analysis tools to measure different voice characteristics.

"We observed across all participants that this captivating manner of speaking is characterized by higher vocal intensity, a higher-pitched voice, more pronounced variations in intensity, and a clearer vocal timbre," says Marcos Domínguez-Arriola.

What makes you want to continue a conversation

For their second experiment, the researchers recruited 36 people, 18 women and 18 men, and had them listen to the recorded anecdotes. Participants had to evaluate various social characteristics of the speakers and indicate how long they would be willing to continue the conversation. This measure, which the researchers called the "time auction," is an innovative aspect of the study.

The researchers then found that the listener's interest in the topic being discussed, not the speaker's oratory style, was the main factor associated with the desired conversation length.

The researchers indicate that since this study relied on asynchronous listening tasks, the next step will be to examine real-time social interactions, which will allow a better understanding of how conversation partners continuously adapt to each other over the course of an exchange. The team also plans to study the neurological mechanisms associated with engaging in a captivating conversation.