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How to Sound Smarter
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…
