墨尔本PTE素材库——Lower Your Voice Pitch to Persuade

墨尔本PTE素材库——Lower Your Voice Pitch to Persuade

中文批注

这段音频的主要内容是关于人在试图说服他人时，会不自觉降低音量哦~通过研究，降低音量时，更具有影响力和说服力~这段音频几乎没有生词，但是内容却很新颖，同时也属于是PTE特别爱考的心理类话题~大家可以把这篇内容当成一个基础练习哦~

澳大利亚语言学院会定期整理一些PTE的素材库，让各位PTE的考生，能够在平时练习的时候就能接触到一些和official questions criteria相近的话题素材，不但能够锻炼PTE考生的听力和复述的能力，也能在消化每篇素材的过程中提高自己的阅读能力以及词汇量。例如这篇关于pitch的文章，大家可以试着summarize这段文章的内容，假如不能完全复述出来的话，可要加油了~看看transcript，查缺补漏吧。

【key vocabulary】

Influential a. 有影响力的

Convincing a. 有说服力的

Nonverbal a. 非语言的

Pitch n. 音量

Rally v. 团结

Full Transcript

Study volunteers whose voices deepened during a group debate tended to be more influential and convincing. Christopher Intagliata reports.

YouTube is full of videos that promise more power and influence. All you’ve got to do is: [YouTube montage: “Get a deeper voice… How to have a deep voice…  You don’t have to live with a small weak voice…”]

But it turns out, you may already deepen your voice—without realizing it. Just like you already use nonverbal cues, like crossing your arms behind your head. “So we think just like those kinds of nonverbal postures, changes in voices probably happen without us thinking, without our conscious awareness.”

Joey Cheng, a social psychologist at the University of Illinois. She and her team suspected people who do deepen their voices while speaking might hold more sway in an argument. They tested the theory by recording 191 university students as they debated, in small groups, about which equipment would be most essential after a disaster on the Moon. Oxygen tanks? Heating units? It’s an old psychology game.

They found that group members who lowered the pitch of their voices during the game—both men and women—were more likely to rally the group around their ideal supply list. They were also rated as more influential by team members and outside observers. “And this approach ends up being effective in that, if you lower your voice, chances are you’ll probably be more effective at becoming leaders and influencing others, because it changes how others see you.” The results are in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. [Joey Cheng et al, Listen, follow me: Dynamic vocal signals of dominance predict emergent social rank in humans]

The key is, initial voice pitch didn’t matter. It was whether the voice got deeper during the exchange with their group. Meaning people of all voice pitches may possess the power to persuade.

—Christopher Intagliata

(source：http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/lower-your-voice-pitch-to-persuade/)