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Why do people need to sound authoritative? I hear a lot of bullshit from people who focus on how they sound. Can't authority be established through work histor
by n8cpdx 5y ago
Why do people need to sound authoritative?
I hear a lot of bullshit from people who focus on how they sound. Can't authority be established through work history? TBH, the more polished and confident a presenter sounds, the more likely they are to be actively bullshitting, and it's really annoying to see people fall for it "because he sounded so confident."
If you are ignoring someone's point because of the sound of voice, rather than quality of content... Yikes. I guess certain silicon valley-isms (e.g. Theranos) start to make sense if people really do that in a corporate setting.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago> Can't authority be established through work history? No. We're still (relatively primitive) animals: we have plenty of well-documented "vulns" and internal biases that affect our decision-making and opinion-forming abilities - and these come from both actual-instinctive habits (like how we're generally predisposed to be biased towards selecting tall people as leaders or for promotion) and learned biases from our cultural upbringing (e.g. racism in the southern US).
- khazhoux 5y agoI'm not talking about bullshitty Power Speaker polish. The vocal uptilt --at least in common native-English dialects-- turns statements into questions, and/or indicates that the speaker seeks agreement or approval from the listener. Do it here and there and it's no problem. Do it for every sentence and it's very off-putting, and distracts from the content itself. It's not radically different advice from not saying Umm every two words, not mumbling/eating half your sentence, not talking to a room in a whisper, etc.
- HPsquared 5y agoIt's even more obvious/annoying if you speak one of the many languages where the only way to ask a question is to raise pitch at the end of a statement.
- op00to 5y agoThis article refers to the US, both English and Spanish have “question words”.
- hopelessattic 5y agoI don't see your point. You can ask a question without using "question words", and you can use question words without asking a question.
- junon 5y agoYes, but making a statement with an upward inflection generally indicates you wish for validation of the statement by others.
- mlindner 5y agoHumans are not machines. Communication is a complex skill that takes years to develop. There's many elements of communication that cannot be represented through text alone. (For example try determining if someone is being sarcastic in online posts, it's entirely communicated through vocal tones.) It's got nothing to do with corporate anything. It's just how communication works.
- xxs 5y agoOn the other side of the pond: sarcasm having a deadpan delivery is quite the norm.