Up to now, there have been a volume of research involving the influence of a communicator's credibility or the audience's likeability toward the communicator on persuasion. However, little research has been done involving the analysis focusing on the ...
Up to now, there have been a volume of research involving the influence of a communicator's credibility or the audience's likeability toward the communicator on persuasion. However, little research has been done involving the analysis focusing on the influence of voice as an element of nonverbal communication on a communicator's credibility and the audience's likeability toward the communicator.
This study investigated how the audience's evaluation of a communicator's credibility and the audience's likeability toward the communicator are influenced by the change of his or her voice quality, pitch, pause, volume, and speed as phonic elements of voice construction. This study further examined the difference in the audience's evaluation of likeability depending upon the elements of voice construction of a Telemarketer and a Showhost whose voice plays an important role for audience persuasion. This study, based on theoretical discussion and empirical research, concentrated on the audience's likeability toward a communicator and a communicator's credibility to measure the influence of phonic elements of voice construction on communication effects.
The term, likeability was defined as "the degree to which a communicator's voice is evaluated to be preferable, likeable, attentive, persuasive by the audience." Likeability consisted of four items which ask 'preferable,' 'likeable,' 'attentive,' and 'persuasive.' Every item was measured by using 7-point Likert scale(1=strongly disagree, 4=medium, 7=strongly agree). The term, credibility was defined as "the degree to which a communicator has expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness." Credibility consisted of three items which ask 'expertise,' 'trustworthiness,' and 'attractiveness' of a communicator's voice Every item was measured by using 7-point Likert scale(1=strongly disagree, 4=medium, 7=strongly agree). Cronbach's Alphas of likeability(α=0.850) and credibility(α=0.870) were considerably high.
Before conducting a main test, a pretest in which 40 college students in Daegu city were participated was performed. Based on the results of the pretest, 5 elements of voice construction were successfully manipulated. Then, the main test which divided into two different research-research one and research two-was conducted. For research one, a total of 600 college students in Daegu city were participated and for research two, a total of 195 college students in the same city were participated.
The first research involved the difference in the audience's likeability toward a communicator's voice and its influence on the audience's evaluation of the communicator's credibility. First, it manipulated a commuicator's voice quality into two different levels including rich and poor voice qualities. Then, the pitch, pause, volume, and speed of both rich and poor voice qualities were modulated. The second research evaluated the audience's likeability toward a communicator and the difference between original live voice and modulated voice of a Telemarketer and a Showhost as the communicator's jobs.
The results of this study were as follows. First, involving the influence of a communicator's voice on the audience's evaluation of likeability toward the communicator, (1) for voice quality, voice with a rich quality showed higher likeability than voice with a poor quality; (2) for voice pitch, voice with a high pitch rather than voice with a low pitch was found to be more attractive and has high likeability; (3) for pause, voice with normal pauses received more positive evaluations by the audience and was more attractive and persuasive than voice with abnormal pauses; (4) for voice volume, there was no significant difference between voices with high and low volumes in the audience's evaluation. However, voice with a high volume was found to be more attractive than voice with a low volume; (5) for voice speed, voice with a low speed received more positive evaluations by the audience than voice with a high speed in overall score of likeability and scores of its sub-concepts.
Second, involving the influence of a communicator's voice on the audience's evaluation of the communicator's credibility, (1) for voice quality, voice with a rich quality showed higher credibility than voice with a poor quality in overall score of credibility and all scores of its sub-concepts; (2) for pause, voice with normal pauses received more positive evaluations by the audience than voice with abnormal pauses in overall score of credibility and all scores of its sub-concepts; (3) for voice speed, voice with a low speed received more positive evaluations of credibility than voice with a high speed in the 'attractiveness' of sub-concepts; (4) However, the audience's evaluation of communicators' credibility was not influenced by voice pitch and voice volume.
Involving the second research in which whether a Telemarketer and a Showhost's original live voices were idealistic or not was examined, the results of this study were as follows. First, a Telemarketer's voice which was modulated into a mid-pitch and a medium-speed rather than her original live voice received positive evaluations by the audience in overall score of likeability and all scores of its four sub-concepts. Second, involving the difference in likeability of original and modulated voices of a Showhost, her voice modulated into a mid-pitch and a medium-speed received the highest positive evaluation by the audience in overall score of likeability. When considering the sub-concepts which construct likeability, however, no significant difference was found between original and modulated voices of the Showhost in the sub-concept of 'attentive.' Nevertheless, the Showhost' voice modulated into a mid-pitch and a medium-speed received the highest positive evaluation by the audience in the rest of the sub-concepts.
In sum, voice quality among the elements of voice construction has the highest influence on the audience's evaluation of likeability and credibility toward a communicator. Put another way, voice with a rich quality showed high likeability and credibility. Further, involving voice speed, voice with a low speed contributed to building the audience's likeability toward a communicator. This aspect seems to show that speaking with a high speed, in relation to the audience's reasonable and critical evaluations, influenced negatively on the building of likeability toward a communicator. Voice with pauses has more influence on the evaluation of credibility rather than on the building of likeability. This aspect seems to show that the audience evaluates that a communicator speaking with normal pauses regularly is more credible. Nevertheless, a communicator's voice pitch and volume have relatively little influence on the audience's evaluation of likeability and credibility toward the communicator.
Considering the results of the second research, it was found that most audiences have a feeling of rejection to original live voice of a Telecommunicater and a Showhost. That is, the highest positive evaluation by the audience for voice with a mid-pitch(200Hz) and a midium-speed(350 syllables per minute) means that the audience does not want to hear voice with a high-pitch and a high-speed.
This study has some meaningful findings involving communication effects of voice as a norm for future studies in that it certified a communicator' phonic elements of voice construction and suggested the elements of vocal construction which influence the audience's likeability and credibility toward a communicator. Put another way, a communicator's voice is not naturally given. Instead, it may come to be the voice with high likeability and credibility by evaluating each element of voice construction objectively through scientific analyses and continuous education and training. It is expected that future studies should pay special attentions to find the active ways of using a communicator's elements of voice construction in order to make that a communicator's voice can be evaluated as having high likeability and credibility by the audience.