I analyzed thousands of TED Talks. Talking with hand gestures makes you look more competent

In our experiments, 1,600 participants rated speakers who used illustrative gestures as more clear, competent, and persuasive.

When people use hand gestures that visually represent what they’re saying, listeners see them as more clear, competent, and persuasive. That’s the key finding from my new research published in the Journal of Marketing Research, where I analyzed thousands of TED Talks and ran controlled experiments to examine how gestures shape communication.