The effects of nonverbal synchrony on message comprehension and persuasiveness

Previous research has not considered the effects of nonverbal synchronization by a speaker on message processing and acceptance by a listener. In this experiment, 178 subjects watched one of three versions of a message—high synchrony, minimal synchrony or dissynchrony—presented by one of two speakers. Receivers of the high synchrony message, which employed kinesic cues synchronized to the vocal/verbal stream, showed higher recall of the message and were more persuaded by it than receivers of the dissynchronous message, which had kinesic cues out of sync with the vocal/verbal stream. Results on three other dependent measures—credibility, distraction and counterarguing—were mixed but were generally consistent with the credibility-yielding and distraction-yielding formulations outlined.