How "Paralinguistic Cues" Can Help You to Persuade

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January 23, 2020

Dear Reader, It's not easy to convince someone of your point of view, no matter how thoroughly you explain the facts. A new study shows that, when it comes to persuading others, it's not just what you say but how you say it—the pitch, volume, or speed. Speaking of voices, scientists have resurrected the vocal tract of an ancient Egyptian scribe. To hear the audio clip, check out the article by Sophie Bushwick. And lastly, researchers in China say snakes may be the original source of the newly discovered coronavirus rapidly spreading through the country.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Behavior & Society How "Paralinguistic Cues" Can Help You to Persuade It's not just what you say but how you say it, research shows By Karinna Hurley

Engineering 3-D Printing Gives Voice to a 3,000-Year-Old Mummy Researchers printed a replica of the vocal tract of ancient Egyptian scribe Nesyamun By Sophie Bushwick

Public Health Snakes Could Be the Original Source of the New Coronavirus Outbreak in China A study of the virus's genetic sequence suggests similarities to that seen in snakes, but the origin must still be verified By Haitao Guo,Guangxiang "George" Luo,Shou-Jiang Gao,The Conversation US

Climate NOAA Gets Go-Ahead to Study Controversial Climate Plan B Government climate scientists will study two geoengineering proposals to counteract global warming By John Fialka,E&E News

Biology Survival of the Fittest Cells Cells in the body don't always play nicely together. Could co-opting their competitive nature help to unlock cutting-edge therapies? By Kendall Powell,Nature magazine

Public Health WHO Declines to Declare China Virus Outbreak a Global Health Emergency The agency's director-general said it is an emergency in China, but not yet globally By Andrew Joseph,STAT

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Confident Tone Overcomes Accent Distrust English as-a-first-language Canadian study subjects were less trusting of statements in English spoken with a foreign accent, unless the speaker sounded confident about their assertion. By Lucy Huang | October 2018

QUOTE OF THE DAY "When visitors encounter the past, it is usually a visual encounter. With this voice, we can change that and make the encounter more multidimensional." John Schofield, Archaeologist at the University of York

WHAT WE'RE READING A burst of gravitational waves hit our planet. Astronomers have no clue where it's from. By Space.com Ancient DNA from West Africa Adds to Picture of Humans' Rise By The New York Times The chemists policing Earth's atmosphere for rogue pollution By Nature

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