How to Make Your Words More Persuasive? A Canadian Study Reveals the Method

Words may seem to be the key to persuasion, but a recent study reveals that the secret to true influence lies in hand gestures!

A comprehensive study conducted by the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada showed that people who use thoughtful and purposeful hand gestures while speaking are perceived as more knowledgeable, competent, and persuasive than those who speak without movement.

While previous research in psychology and communication focused on tone of voice and facial expressions, this study highlights hand movements as a powerful tool for influence.

According to researcher Mei Zhu from the Sauder School of Business:

"If a person uses their hands to visually illustrate what they are saying, the audience feels they are more knowledgeable and better able to explain, which increases their credibility."

The team used artificial intelligence to analyze 2,184 TED talks, which were segmented into 10-second clips, extracting over 200,000 hand movements.

These movements were linked to audience engagement indicators such as likes, views, and comments, taking into account factors like the speaker's gender, profession, language, video length, and topic.

Result: The more meaningful the illustrative gestures, the greater the audience engagement and the higher the performance rating.

The researchers did not stop at video analysis; they conducted an experiment with volunteers who watched identical sales presentations in audio content, but with different gesture styles. The result was clear:

Presentations that used illustrative visual gestures received the highest rates of trust and understanding.

Random signals or the absence of movement had little effect.

1 _ Illustrative Gestures: Visually depicting speech, such as indicating size or direction.

2 _ Emphatic Gestures: Such as pointing with a finger at a mentioned object.

3 _ Random or Unintentional Gestures.

The analysis proved that the first type is the most impactful, as it enables the human mind to process information visually and auditorily together, making the message clearer and more memorable.

The researchers used a multimodal AI model to analyze video and audio together, tracking 21 points on the hands to determine the path and movement and linking it to the spoken texts in real-time.

With this technique, they were able to demonstrate that what was once thought to be an "instinctive art" of influential speakers has become measurable and scientifically analyzable.

The study confirms that improving persuasion is not limited to the quality of content alone, but also includes the way it is delivered.

Researcher Gabriel Rizzo points out the importance of these findings in the age of digital meetings and virtual presentations, where direct physical interactions are reduced, making visible body language more impactful than ever.

In conclusion, the study asserts that human language is more than words;

it is an integrated visual, emotional, and physical interaction, and consciously moving the hands can be a powerful tool for persuasion in every context, from teaching to sales and even daily social communication.