The Discovery Files: Convincing Evidence

Want to convince someone to do something? A University of Michigan study examines how various speech characteristics influence people's decisions to participate in telephone surveys. But its findings have implications for many other situations, from closing sales to swaying voters to getting spouses to see things your way.

Credit: NSF/Karson Productions

Audio Transcript:

It's Not Always What You Say, It's How You Say It.

I'm Bob Karson with the discovery files -- new advances in science and engineering from the National Science Foundation.

From convincing your spouse to closing a sale, researchers at the University of Michigan have identified some speech characteristics that may help your success ratio.

The team broke down 1,380 phone calls made by 100 male and female interviewers trying to convince people to participate in a telephone survey. Here are the findings -- which may not always work, but could give you a better overall chance.

Speed: Interviewers who spoke moderately fast (about 3½ words per second or the pace I'm speaking now) had better luck; any faster and you come off as untrustworthy; slower and you seem unsure, not too bright.

Liveliness:The team found that too many inflections make you sound fake or like you're trying too hard.

Pitch: Depends on if you're a man or a woman. Men with higher-pitched voices fared worse than men with deep voices. With women, pitch was not a factor.

The last characteristic was pauses. The least successful interviewers had no pauses and came off sounding scripted. Pausing a lot did better but tended to make the speaker sound uninformed. The right amount of pauses seems to be about 4 or 5 per minute.

Now using these guidelines get out there and talk someone into something. Some "convincing" evidence.

The Discovery Files: Power Grab

Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems.

Credit: NSF/Karson Productions

Audio Transcript:

(Sound effect: Electronic sucking sound)Power Grab[1]. (Sound effect: theme music) I'm Bob Karson with the discovery files -- new advances in science and engineering from the National Science Foundation.

Shhhh. Can you hear it? Do you feel it all around you? Probably not, but it's there, (Sound effect: light hum and buzz of many radio, telephone, and electrical sources fades in) ambient energy. You know, the electromagnetic energy emitted by cell phone and radio and TV towers even satellite systems. It's just coursing through the air.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered a way to harvest and store ambient energy. In order to be able to pick from the many frequency ranges, the team used an ultra-wideband antenna that can get everything from FM radio to radar signals. Their scavenging devices capture, then convert the power from AC to DC, and store it in capacitors or batteries.

(Sound effect: hair dryer)Now you're not gonna exactly going to be running your hairdryer with ambient power just yet. More likely small electronic devices like sensors and microprocessors.

The team is using inkjet printers to "print" sensors, antennas and energy-capture capabilities on paper or flexible polymer material. Imagine wireless, self-powered sensors in airport security for detection, monitoring temperature and humidity throughout your home, in buildings and bridges to warn of structural problems, even as inexpensive food-spoilage detectors and (Sound effect: beeping from medial machine) wearable bio-monitors that observe patient medical issues.

All powered with energy harvested in an electromagnetic field. Sort of a high-tech dream-catcher[2].

The Discovery Files" covers projects funded by the government's National Science Foundation. Federally sponsored research -- brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.

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Notes:

[1] power grab
The original meaning means the attempt or action of acquiring or accomplishing something that was previously unattainable but is now possible through newly acquired power. However, here the word "power" indicates electrical energy.

[2] dream-catcher
A Native American craftwork consisting of a small hoop covered with string, yarn, or horsehair mesh and decorated with feathers and beads and believed to give its owner good dreams.

The Discovery Files: Stress Test

In her research, University of Chicago associate professor in psychology Sian Beilock, has shown the brain can work to sabotage performance, often in pressure-filled situations that deplete brain power critical to many everyday activities.

Credit: NSF/Karson Productions

Audio Transcript:

Stress for Success.

I'm Bob Karson with the discovery files -- new advances in science and engineering from the National Science Foundation.

(Sound effect: college classroom sound)"Ok, listen up, 'cause there's going to be a test." Those words can send students everywhere into a panic. It seems for some, no matter how much they've studied, the stress of the test can get the best of them -- while others appear to thrive on it.

Sian Beilock (see-on bye-lock) and her research team at the University of Chicago gave 73 undergrads a stressful math test and measured two things: the students' working memory, how well they temporarily manage and store information and their level of math anxiety -- or fear about doing math. (Sweaty palms anyone?)

(Audio: Sian Beilock)"We have a variety of brain and body reactions under pressure in stressful situations but what our research shows is that it's not so much about these bodily reactions, but how you interpret them whether you interpret them as a sign you're going to succeed, or a sign that you're ready for failure that predicts whether you thrive or dive in the pressure-filled situation."

The research honed in on cortisol[1], "the stress hormone." If you're a student with a large working memory but with a fear of math, rising cortisol levels can lead you to choke. No fear of math? The more your cortisol goes up, the more your test score might, too. So change your perspective, and you might just change your grade. One caveat: you still have to know the material -- a point worth "stressing."

The Discovery Files" covers projects funded by the government's National Science Foundation. Federally sponsored research -- brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.

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Notes:

[1] cortisol
腎上腺皮質素 An adrenal-cortex hormone. For more information, please refer to the following links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
http://www.symcl.com.tw/check_single.php?tname=B&sno=122
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/teenty/20474731