The contribution of amplitude modulations in speech to perceived charisma

Speech contains pronounced amplitude modulations in the 1–9 Hz range, correlating with the syllabic rate of speech. Recent models of speech perception propose that this rhythmic nature of speech is central to speech recognition and has beneficial effects on language processing. Here, we investigated the contribution of amplitude modulations to the subjective impression listeners have of public speakers. The speech from US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three TV debates of 2016 was acoustically analyzed by means of modulation spectra. These indicated that Clinton’s speech had more pronounced amplitude modulations than Trump’s speech, particularly in the 1–9 Hz range. A subsequent perception experiment, with listeners rating the perceived charisma of (low-pass filtered versions of) Clinton’s and Trump’s speech, showed that more pronounced amplitude modulations (i.e., more ‘rhythmic’ speech) increased perceived charisma ratings. These outcomes highlight the important contribution of speech rhythm to charisma perception

Does Talking the Talk Help Walking the Walk? An Examination of the Effect of Vocal Attractiveness in Leader Effectiveness

The authors tested the hypothesis that leaders\u27 vocal attractiveness is positively related to perceptions of leadership effectiveness. In a first study using vocal spectral analysis on a sample of U.S. presidents and Canadian prime ministers, vocal attractiveness accounted for significant variance in historians\u27 perceptions of leadership effectiveness (β = .35, p \u3c .05), explaining an additional 12% of the variance above that explained by personality, motives, and charisma. A second study of 255 subjects distributed into 85 teams in a laboratory setting found similar results for the relationship between vocal attractiveness and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. The second study also supported the hypothesis that personal reactions mediate the relationship between vocal attractiveness and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. In contrast, vocal attractiveness and personal reactions were found to have no significant effects on leadership effectiveness outcomes

Emotions Management within Organizations

Emotions management in organizations is meant to habilitate the employees in administrating the emotional resources aiming at the correct adaptation to the organizational environment and the necessities in the work activity. The study of emotions in organizations has the purpose to know and optimize the employees’ emotional condition. The efficient leaders are interested in administrating the emotions, being aware of and capable to revaluate the factors which positively activate the employees emotional life. Emotions management is accomplished at two more important levels: personal level or subjective (represented by the person’s self-control capacity, the emotional intelligence, the ability to administrate the positive and negative emotions) and an interpersonal or social level, centered upon settling the emotional changes between employees and leaders, between employees and clients. From their settling into the practice point of view, the increase in the work performance and the benefits brought to the organizational environment, the concepts by which emotions management is accomplished/operate (positive emotions and negative emotions, emotional intelligence, emotional self-control, emotional labour etc.), this issue presents greater interest both for theorists and for the real doers/practitioners.emotions management, emotional labour, emotional contagion, emotional intelligence, organizational group

“We are against Islam!”: The Lega Nord and the Islamic folk devil

© 2012 the Author(s). This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Without requesting permission from the Author or SAGE, you may further copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the article, with the condition that the Author and SAGE Open are in each case credited as the source of the article.Since 1995, the Italian Lega Nord (LN) political party has depicted itself as the defender of Padania, a territory that covers the mainly affluent regions of Northern Italy. Around this politico-spatial territory, the LN has shaped an identity based on the notion of Popolo Padano (the Padanian People). Since the new millennium, LN rhetoric has increasingly focused—stemming more from the demands of realpolitik than those of conviction—on opposing irregular immigration per se and, more specifically, Islam and Muslim immigration. In the eyes of the LN propagandists and their media, the theology of Islam and its practitioners represent a growing threat to the modern Italian and Padanian identity (and tradition). The LN has not been alone in using the media to oppose Islam; the Italian media has reinforced LN messages; Muslims are generally depicted as dangerous and compared with terrorists and their religion and culture are described as the opposite of Italian/West values. Something approximating to a “moral panic” around this issue has ensued. Integral to this are notions of morality combined with practices of moral entrepreneurship. What follows seeks to highlight the LN’s stereotypical depictions of Islam. This evaluation is important because the LN was a major player in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government (2008-2011) and is still a significant party among the Italian political spectrum. Integral to what follows are the following questions: “Is contemporary Islamic immigration a threat to the Italian (and Padanian) way of life?” and “Are the perceived threats to be found in the periodic uncertainties that societies suffer or might we need to search for wider processes?

Living in two worlds: pastoral responses to possession in Singapore

Possession behaviour and exorcism have become more common in Singapore churches since 1972 with the increasing popularity and influence of the charismatic movement. This study aims to describe, analyse, and evaluate the responses of pastors in Singapore to people who display possession behaviour. The in- depth interview of 16 pastors involved in exorcism/deliverance ministry forms the primary material for this study and is complemented by interviews of subjects of possession, psychiatrists, and other informed persons. The study is divided into three phases.In the descriptive phase (chapters 3-5), the pastors' worldview and understanding of the epidemiology, symptomatology, and therapeutic management of possession behaviour are described. They espouse a traditional spirit worldview which views life as a battle between God and and a hierarchy of evil spirits who play an intimate role in the daily lives of people. People are believed to be possessed by evil spirits through contact with occultic and non-Christian religious practices. According to the pastors, people from the lower socio-economic strata, and those with emotional problems and other needs are predisposed to such contact: Demon possession is said to manifest itself through the emergence of an alternate personality, with accompanying personality and behavioural changes and disturbances. The pastors' respond in such instances by attempting to exorcise the "demon" through a deliverance session.In the analytical phase (chap 6-7), the pastors' understanding, explanation, and response to possession behaviour is compared with competing paradigms from the scientific disciplines (eg psychiatry and social anthropology). The similarities between the two sets of discourses are shown using their epidemiological (and phenomenological) description of possession suggesting that they may be describing similar phenomena. However, the fundamental tension between the two discourses emerges when their hermeneutic understanding of possession is examined. This tension is centred in competing epistemological and cosmological assumptions. The pastors' accounts are constructed around a two-worlds worldview while the scientific accounts are based on modern science's one- world worldview. The pastors respond to the competing scientific paradigm by attempting to live between both their worlds in various ways. Some focus on the other (spiritual) world, while others attempt to live in one world at a time. Yet others try to live in between both worlds. Analysis of the pastors' approach shows that their demonological paradigms are created and reinforced by various social and psychological factors largely centred around the theme of competition played in various arenas: ecclesiastical, religious, professional, and personal. While such hermeneutics of suspicion a.re employed to unmask the motivations of the pastors and the way their worldview is shaped, this does not mean that science and scientific explanations can provide the metanarrative with which we can evaluate the pastors' response.The evaluative phase of the study (chapt7-8) develops this question further by looking at the limitations of modern science and contemporary theologies constructed around the scientific paradigm. This is done by examining the theological questions of epistemology, theodicy, and cosmology. The limitations of reductionist epistemologies and theodicies are shown with a critique of both modern science and theology, and charismatic demonology. The model of living in both worlds simultaneously is proposed using the cosmological understanding of Orthodox theology and Christology, thus recovering the patristic paradigm of a spiritual universe and embodied spirituality. The implications of this for pastoral responses to possession behaviour are then outlined centering on the theological vision of two co-existing worlds (a spiritual universe) and the pastoral task of unmasking and resisting evil in all its varieties and depth

Perception of ‘Peace’ From A Religious Perspective: A Metaphorical Analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Prize Speech: Aliakbar Imani: Language Academy, Universiti Technologi Malaysia

Abstract: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s eloquence as an orator is widely recognized all over the world and his rhetorical strategies have been subject to many studies. However, very few studies have looked into his use of metaphor as an effective cognitive device and communication strategy. Hence, this paper, drawing upon Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory, provides a metaphorical analysis of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964), which is among his most popular and influential speeches in the history, to understand the way ‘peace’ is perceived by him and conveyed to the audience. The findings of this study reveal that this speech is highly metaphorical, which seems to be one of the reasons of its popularity and effectiveness. The findings of the study also reveal that, while King is considered both as a political and religious leader, ‘peace’ is dominantly framed from a religious perspective via metaphors of ‘light’ and ‘journey’, positioning him as a religious rather than political leader. Furthermore, it is argued that the use of dualistic image-making as one of his discursive strategies makes his metaphors more impactful. For instance, while Peace is portrayed as Light, lack of Peace is portrayed as Darkness; and while Peace is portrayed as an Upward Movement, lack of Peace is portrayed as a Downward Movement. Finally, accompanying metaphorical words with adjectives (for instance, employing adjectives of ‘dark’, ‘starless’, and ‘long’ for the metaphorical ‘night’) gives a more emphatic tone to his metaphors.     Keywords: Martin Luther King Jr.; Metaphor Analysis; Nobel Peace Prize; Peace; Religious discourse

Transitivity and Mystification in a Contemporary Discourse Analysis of Trump’s Inaugural Address

In contemporary discourse analysis (CDA), transitivity refers to what Hart (2014) understood as “the type of process designated in the clause and the consequences of this for the types of participants that can occur in the clause” (p. 22). The purpose of this research is to analyze the transitivity and mystification in Trump’s inaugural address

Throwing One’s Voice and Speaking for Others : Performative Vocality and Transcription in the Assemblées of the long nineteenth century

Peer reviewe

Food and welfare in India, c. 1900–1950

In 2001, the People's Union for Civil Liberties submitted a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India on the “right to food.” The petitioner was a voluntary human rights organization; the initial respondents were the Government of India, the Food Corporation of India, and six state governments. The petition opens with three pointed questions posed to the court: * A. Does the right to life mean that people who are starving and who are too poor to buy food grains ought to be given food grains free of cost by the State from the surplus stock lying with the State, particularly when it is reported that a large part of it is lying unused and rotting? * B. Does not the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India include the right to food? * C. Does not the right to food, which has been upheld by the Honourable Court, imply that the state has a duty to provide food especially in situations of drought, to people who are drought affected and are not in a position to purchase food