Albert Mehrabian's famous 7-38-55 rule about communication is widely misunderstood. His research only applies to how we read emotions, not overall message content. Words still matter enormously for substance, even if tone and body language dominate how we sense someone's feelings.
When it comes to communication and influence, it's 7% words, 38% voice tone, and 55% your physical body. Does that ring true to you?
It's been a little misunderstood all these years as something that directly pertains to what it is we remember from people. You can imagine how discouraging it is if you're a writer or you're a wordsmith and you hear that only 7% of what people remember are your words. And I always thought, wow, that's so discouraging. Could that possibly be true? Because the difference between a speech written well and a speech written Poorly, to me, makes a huge difference. What Mehrabian really meant was that what we're able to read emotionally off of somebody is based on that. And now that makes total sense. 38% of how we say it means I can tell from the tone of this person's voice how they're feeling about it. And I can tell from their hand gestures and their facial expressions an awful lot. The words, you know, not so much in terms of a window into the emotional frame of mind of the communicator.
The Library of Minds: Brain Coach: How to Stay Sharp When AI Does the Thinking | Jim Kwik
