Political Persuasion

Friday, November 03 2006 | Send to a friend

POLITICAL PERSUASION

There was one underestimated factor behind the victory of George W. Bush over John Kerry in the last presidential election, according to British author Anne Karpf: the voice. 

Kerry's voice held little appeal for voters, while Bush's was one with which voters could identify. He sounded like them. These observations are part of Anne's new book, The Human Voice.

Anne Karpf

While writing it, people showed little interest in her project. But then, Anne asked them about voices they loved, voices they hated, voices which gave comfort and those which annoyed.

"You can't really know a person until you have heard them speak.  There can hardly be a person who hasn't bristled over a conversation with someone whose words were unexceptional but whose tone of voice delivered an entirely different message…. As animals with smell, so are humans with voices."
- Anne Karpf, The Human Voice

• Listen to the entire Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech
  
• Listen to other great American political speeches here and here or here
• Find out more about Anne's book
• Read some of Anne's work for Guardian Unlimited

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