Beautiful Noise? The Impact of Filled Pauses on the Perception of Speaker Charisma

Research on filled pauses (FPs) in field data of public speeches suggests that, all else equal, oral FPs ("err") are more harmful than nasal FPs ("um") for a public speaker’s perceived charisma. We further examined this conclusion using experimentally varied stimuli and, moreover, by systematically investigating interactions of FP type with two factors: speaker gender and prestige. Secondly, we expanded the focus to a common type of FPs whose influence on speaker charisma has so far never been tested: clicks, better known as ‘tut’ sounds or "tsk". Based on an award-winning investor pitch, 16 stimuli were created by cross-combining gender, prestige, and FP-type conditions. In a balanced randomization design, the stimuli were rated in terms of charisma attributes and two investment-related questions by a total of 237 listeners. Results corroborated the field-data conclusions for male speakers and showed in addition that clicks were more harmful than both oral and nasal FPs, especially for female speakers. Prestige significantly interacted with FP type and gender, e.g., in that female speakers’ charisma perception benefitted more from a prestigious introduction. We discuss our results with respect to their implications for future research and practical application in rhetorical training.