Hear me out: the role of competent and warm vocal tones in risk communication

ABSTRACT

Risk communication involves conveying potential risks to the audience. It’s crucial for shaping behavior and influencing individual well-being. Previous research predominantly focused on verbal and written aspects of risk communication, with less emphasis on nonverbal cues like vocal tone. Addressing this gap, our study explores the impact of competent and warm vocal tones on risk communication across two risky decision-making paradigms, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in Study 1 and the Gambling Task in Study 2. Results show that competent and warm vocal tones are more persuasive than neutral tones, and their effectiveness varies in different decision-making scenarios. Additionally, participants’ perceived competence and warmth of vocal tones mediate this persuasiveness. This study enhances our theoretical understanding of risk communication by incorporating the impact of vocal tones. Also, it carries practical implications for marketers and practitioners, demonstrating the importance of using voice as a medium to persuade in real-world scenarios.

KEYWORDS:

• Competence
• persuasion
• risk communication
• vocal tone
• warmth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/ckrf6.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/ckrf6

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2024.2368015

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Yixuan Jiang

Yixuan Jiang is a PhD student in psychology at the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.

Yongqi Yao

Yongqi Yao is a graduate student in psychology at the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.

Xiuying Qian

Xiuying Qian is a Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.