A Gender Bias in the Acoustic-Melodic Features of Charismatic Speech?

Previous studies proved the immense importance of nonverbal skills when it comes to being persuasive and coming across as charismatic. It was also found that men sound more convincing and persuasive (i.e. altogether more charismatic) than women under otherwise comparable conditions. This gender bias is investigated in the present study by analyzing and comparing acoustic-melodic charisma features of male and female business executives. In line with the gender bias in perception, our results show that female CEOs who are judged to be similarly charismatic as their male counterpart(s) produce more and stronger acoustic charisma cues. This suggests that there is a gender bias which is compensated for by making a greater effort on the part of the female speakers.