How ‘um’ and ‘uh’ shape impressions

Some people are smooth talkers, others frequently say “uh.” But does that influence our overall opinion of the person speaking? That’s the question driving the research of Jonathan Lee. “There’s this assumption that if you’re saying ‘um’ a lot, you’re taken less seriously,” he says. “But is that actually true?”

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Disfluency refers to irregularities in otherwise fluid speech, but it’s different than stuttering; think more pauses or filler words. Lee is exploring whether those hesitation markers have a social cost, including how they might affect both higher-stakes situations—interviewing for a job or seeking political office, for instance—and casual interactions.

Hailing from Hong Kong with an interest in bilingualism and psychotherapy, Lee, a fourth-year linguistics Ph.D. in the School of Arts & Sciences, initially studied Chinese language and literature. He became curious about what he didn’t see in transcripts or subtitles: the in-between moments as someone forms the next thought.

Drawn to Penn’s Language and Communication Sciences program for its multidisciplinary approach, Lee began working with Mark Liberman, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and director of Penn’s Linguistic Data Consortium, as his adviser. As Lee’s work has progressed, he has also collaborated with faculty across the University, including those in the Department of Psychology and at the Wharton School.

That range of expertise has helped Lee work through challenges like how research of this sort often relies on lab recordings rather than real speech. To get around that, he has turned to external recordings—some formal, like lectures and legal recordings, some informal, like conversations between couples or families. Using software, he makes marginal, impossible-to-notice digital modifications. Then participants, who are recruited both across campus and online, listen to those recordings and answer questions around trustworthiness and their perceptions of the speaker.

So far, Lee has received more than 1,000 responses. “Disfluency is not always negative. It can be seen positively or neutrally,” he observes. “Sometimes it just sounds like an expert pausing to think carefully, and context matters, too.”

This story is by Ev Crunden. Read more at Omnia.