Looking for a Brand New You?

I am confident you will trust me.

Posted on: Thursday, October 4, 2018 Category: Blog (58)
2 min read

By Rhys Blyth

A recent study from researchers at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada explored how we trust, or don’t trust, others with an accent. They found that, unless a person with a non-native accent speaks with confidence, they are less likely to be believed.

Why we are less trusting of non-native accents is due to an underlying bias that favours members of our own group. However, when a non-native speaker uses a confident tone of voice, we judge their statements equally to those of native speakers.

According to the researchers, different areas of our brain activate when listening to non-native or native speakers. When a native speaker talks, parts of the brain involved in making inferences based on past experiences are activated. As such, we focus simply on their tone of voice. However, when listening to a non-native speaker, we engage a two-step process that activates the auditory processing regions of our brain to a  greater extent. We make our decision to trust based on

  1. the sounds that the speaker produces and;
  2. their tone of voice.

At Brand New You, we talk about having presence and impact – particular skills and techniques that help you increase another person’s chance of trusting you. Your tone of voice is extremely important in inferring trust and likeability, over and above what you are saying. As the researchers have found, your voice impacts how others perceive you, and when negotiating with people from other countries, this becomes more important.

In meetings, interviews, negotiations and more, it is important that your brand delivers its content in a manner that is deliberate, consistent and authentic. The quality and tone of your voice determine how much impact your messages have on others. If you want to win over colleagues, investors or even your partner and kids, get in touch and we’ll show you how to have real presence.

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