Persuasive communication is Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger’s passion. He’s published dozens of papers and four books on how the right words in the right context can move people to action. His latest co-authored research looks at another component of communication that’s more subtle than words but just as mighty — hand gestures.
In the paper “Talking With Your Hands: How Hand Gestures Influence Communication,” Berger and his colleagues analyzed thousands of presentations and ran experiments that determined certain hand movements help speakers engage their audience and boost their message. And with more than 85% of consumers buying products after watching videos online, the right kind of hand gestures can help drive home a point — and maybe a sale.
“As long as your audience can see you, whether it’s recorded or live, it’s important to understand how our nonverbal communication shapes our impact,” Berger said. “Yes, it’s the words we use. But it’s also how we say those words and the nonverbal gestures that can make the difference.”
The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research. The co-authors are Luca Cascio Rizzo, marketing professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and Mi Zhou, accounting and information systems professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
All Hand Gestures Are Not Equal
In previous work, Berger has examined aspects of communication as nuanced as word choice, verb tense, and rate of speech. But hand gestures are a unique, understudied angle. The professors were curious about how this particular form of nonverbal communication influences listeners. Are hand gestures distracting? Just background noise? Are some more effective and emphatic than others?
“We’re not the first people to think about hand gestures, but the challenge has been studying this at scale,” Berger said. “It’s one thing to do an experiment with one gesture, but different types of gestures might have different effects. So we needed a way to study that.”
The team found their answers by developing an automated video analysis program to classify thousands of gestures from 200,000 TED Talks segments. Because of their consistent format, the videos offered a more precise measurement of movement, according to the paper. They also had a diversity of speakers, which helped test whether their theory could be generalized. Each video was compared against the number of “likes” it received. Analysis revealed that presentations were evaluated more positively when speakers moved their hands more.
But all gestures are not equal.
To determine which hand movements are most effective, the team broke them down into three classifications. Unrelated gestures are movements such as a speaker scratching their nose or taking a sip of water. Highlighters emphasize of what is being said, such as a speaker pointing to an object or raising their hands in the air. Illustrators visually represent what is being said, such as a speaker holding their hands at a distance while saying they “caught a fish this big!”
“Don’t just talk with your words, talk with your hands.”— Jonah Berger
Illustrators were the most effective by far, according to the video analyses and follow-up experiments. Berger said they help to increase understanding, which makes the speaker seem more knowledgeable and competent.
“If I’m a B2B salesman explaining software to a client, or a teacher explaining a difficult concept to students, gestures can help depict what I’m talking about and increase the communication’s impact,” he said. “Any gesture may be able to draw attention, but if you want to help people understand what you are saying, illustrators are most useful.”
Increasing hand gestures and using more illustrators can be a simple, inexpensive way to boost audience engagement and willingness to purchase, Berger said. In the video study, doubling hand movements corresponded with 5.1% more engagement. Hand gestures are easily learned and particularly helpful on video, whether it’s a corporate leader on a conference call, a salesperson giving a pitch, an influencer doing a product review, a political candidate outlining a platform, or a teacher explaining the solar system.
“Don’t just talk with your words, talk with your hands. Because they can be another way to increase understanding, showcase your knowledge, and increase your impact overall,” Berger said.
