Seminar （Dept. of Marketing）

Theme：Audio Mining: The Role of Vocal Tone in Persuasion

Speaker：Xi Li（City University of Hong Kong）

Time：2021-06-10 10:00

Address：Room 1007, Mingde Business Building

Language：Chinese/English

Abstract：

Persuasion success is often related to hard-to-measure characteristics, such as the way the persuader speaks. To examine how vocal tones impact persuasion in an online appeal, this research measures persuaders’ vocal tones in Kickstarter video pitches using novel audio mining technology. Connecting vocal tone dimensions with real-world funding outcomes offers insight into the impact of vocal tones on receivers’ actions. The core hypothesis of this paper is that a successful persuasion attempt is associated with vocal tones denoting (1) focus, (2) low stress, and (3) stable emotions. These three vocal tone dimensions—which are in line with the stereotype content model—matter because they allow receivers to make inferences about a persuader’s competence. The hypotheses are tested with a large-scale empirical study using Kickstarter data, which is then replicated in a different category. In addition, two controlled experiments provide evidence that perceptions of competence mediate the impact of the three vocal tones on persuasion attempt success. The results identify key indicators of persuasion attempt success and suggest a greater role for audio mining in academic consumer research.

Short biography：

Xi Li is assistant professor of marketing at the City University of Hong Kong. He received his PhD in Management from University of Toronto and BE in Computer Science from Tsinghua University. He uses economics and machine learning methods to understand how information technologies such as artificial intelligence, recommender systems, data-driven algorithms, blockchain, and algorithmic pricing affect firms, consumers and the society, and how policymakers should regulate big data and protect consumer privacy. His research has appeared in such journals as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research.