[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-306482-105":53,"doc-detail-306482-en":127},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":120,"head_meta":122,"extra_data":124,"updated_unix":126},105,"en","persuading-investors-a-video-based-study-paper","Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study - Paper","","Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study investigates how delivery in startup pitches—facial expression, tone of voice, and diction—affects investor funding. Using machine learning to analyze full pitch videos, the study quantifies persuasion across visual, vocal, and verbal dimensions and finds positive delivery increases funding probability. Conditional on funding, higher pitch positivity predicts weaker long-term performance. The paper also shows gendered judgments in single-gender teams and explains mechanisms via leading investors to hold inaccurate beliefs.",{"@graph":63,"@context":119},[64,80,102],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":11,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/presentations/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/persuading-investors-a-video-based-study-paper/306482/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/persuading-investors-a-video-based-study-paper/306482.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Đào","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-19",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":101},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",19,{"@type":103,"mainEntity":104},"FAQPage",[105,111,115],{"name":106,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":108},"How does the study define and measure persuasion in startup pitches?","Question",{"text":109,"@type":110},"It analyzes full pitch videos with machine learning and quantifies persuasion across visual, vocal, and verbal dimensions, including facial expressions, tone of voice, and word choices in the script.","Answer",{"name":112,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":113},"What relationship does pitch positivity have with investor funding?",{"text":114,"@type":110},"Positive pitches—described as passionate and warm—raise the probability of receiving funding.",{"name":116,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What mechanism explains why delivery persuasion changes investor decisions?",{"text":118,"@type":110},"The paper argues persuasion delivery works mainly by leading investors to form inaccurate beliefs, and it tests related mechanisms using an experiment.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":121,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":123,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":125,"site_id":56},306482,1791162846,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":128},{"doc_id":125,"user_id":129,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":9,"category_id":8,"category_name":11,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":101,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":136,"language":137,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":138,"faqs":139,"seo_title":140,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":141,"read_time":142},1374402968488,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study *  \nALLEN HU and SONG MA  \nPersuasive communication functions through not only content but also delivery, i.e., facial expression, tone of voice, and diction. This paper examines the persuasiveness of delivery in startup pitches. Using machine learning algorithms to process full pitch videos, we quantify persuasion in visual, vocal, and verbal dimensions. We find that positive (i.e., passionate, warm) pitches increase funding probability. Yet conditional on funding, startups with higher levels of pitch positivity underperform. Women are more heavily judged on delivery when evaluated in single-gender teams, but they are neglected when co-pitching in mixed-gender teams. Using an experiment, we show that persuasion delivery works mainly through leading investors to form inaccurate beliefs.  \nJEL Classification: D91, G41, C55, G24  \nKeywords: Persuasion, Behavioral Economics, Video Data, Machine Learning  \n*Hu is with Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. Ma is with Yale University and NBER. We thank Wei Xiong (the Editor), an anonymous Associate Editor, and two anonymous referees. We also thank seminar participants at ASSA, Boston College, Chicago Booth, Colorado, EFA, Finance in the Cloud, Georgia State, I´ESEG, Indiana, MFA, NBER Behavioral Finance Meeting, NBER Summer Institute (Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship), RFS/GSU FinTech Conference, SFS Cavalcade, Washington St. Louis, WFA, and Yale and numerous colleagues for helpful comments. Yajie Luo and Ran You provided excellent research assistance. The project received IRB approval at Yale University. All errors are our own. We have read The Journal of Finance disclosure policy and have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The paper was previously circulated under the title “Human Interactions and Financial Investment: A Video-Based Approach.”  \nMany decisions in firms and financial markets are made after interpersonal persuasion, for example, pitches to investors, board presentations, and job interviews. It is often believed that in such persuasive communications, investors or interviewers not only learn information from the content (e.g., the numbers, financial models, market analysis) 1 but are also swayed by the rich characteristics of how the persuasion is delivered—features like facial expression, tone of voice, or diction of speech can be impactful. As Mehrabian (1971)’s study shows, there is a 7-55-38 rule of communication: words convey 7 percent of a message, body language such as facial expressions accounts for 55 percent, and tone delivers 38 percent.2  \nResearch on the effect of non-verbal features in communications has recently started to emerge in financial economics. Mayew and Venkatachalam (2012) and Gorodnichenko, Pham, and Talavera (2023) study vocal tones of CEOs in earnings conferences and that of Federal Reserve chairs in press conferences, respectively, and show that the market extracts information from vocal cues. Some studies, however, cast doubt on the value of using these communication features in economic decision-making. For example, using executive assessment data, Kaplan, Klebanov, and Sorensen (2012) and Kaplan and Sorensen (2021) show that boards overweight interpersonal communication skills in their executive hiring decisions at the cost of poor future managerial performance. Open questions remain concerning the role of persuasive communication features in financial decisionmaking, accounting for comprehensive dimensions like facial expressions, vocal tones, and verbal cues; whether these features lead to better or biased investment decisions; and the underlying mechanisms.  \nIn this paper, we make progress in answering these questions in three dimensions. First, we introduce a method to process video data of persuasive communications, from which we can simultaneously quantify multi-modal characteristics including visual (e.g., facial expressions), vocal (e.g., tone of voice), and","cbCailFkPLWfRkgs","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailFkPLWfRkgs","pdf",5112868,128,"English","# Introduction\n## Persuasive delivery in investor communication\n# Data and Method\n## Machine learning on pitch videos\n## Multimodal persuasion dimensions\n# Findings\n## Pitch positivity and funding probability\n## Performance after funding and gender effects\n# Mechanisms\n## Investors’ beliefs and an experiment","[{\"question\":\"How does the study define and measure persuasion in startup pitches?\",\"answer\":\"It analyzes full pitch videos with machine learning and quantifies persuasion across visual, vocal, and verbal dimensions, including facial expressions, tone of voice, and word choices in the script.\"},{\"question\":\"What relationship does pitch positivity have with investor funding?\",\"answer\":\"Positive pitches—described as passionate and warm—raise the probability of receiving funding.\"},{\"question\":\"What mechanism explains why delivery persuasion changes investor decisions?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues persuasion delivery works mainly by leading investors to form inaccurate beliefs, and it tests related mechanisms using an experiment.\"}]","Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study - Paper | PDF",1789837027,45]