‘Can you hear me now?’ Study reveals why voices are raised on video calls

The trials and difficulties of video calls became familiar as the Pandemic forced workers to communicate from their kitchen tables, makeshift offices and boxroom desks.

Scientists have shown that when video quality gets worse, we speak louder and change our gestures to make up for it.

The gestures that we make while talking, as well as other visual signals such as facial expressions, are truly important and integrated aspects of how we communicate.

If you have a poor video connection, remember to articulate both your speech and gestures.

He said that previous research had shown that when we can't hear someone, we speak louder and people make their gestures more noticeable.

He said that there is a tendency for us to put more effort into our speech and gestures when our communication is disrupted.

In the Royal Society Open Science journal, Trujillo and colleagues reported how they analysed video calls. Participants sat in separate rooms and chatted with each other over a video call for 40 minutes.

The quality of the video was changed in 10 steps between excellent and completely blurred, with half of the pairs experiencing improving video quality over the call, and half having it degrade. The quality of the video was the same for both people.

The researchers were able to track the gestures of participants during the calls.

As video quality deteriorated, participants reduced their arm and body movements, but as the quality got worse, they moved them more. The rate, speed and size at which they gestured all increased as video quality initially fell but then decreased as it deteriorated further.

Speech was unaffected by decreases in visibility when gestures were not being used. When video quality began to fall, volume increased by up to 5 decibels as gestures ceased to be useful, and then remained at this higher level as video quality deteriorated further.

The results showed that communication was more than just speech, it was an integrated system of visual and auditory signals that convey meaning.

To compensate for poorer video quality, people use their gestures to help their partner see the meaning of the gesture.

The fact that people do it shows how integrated these systems are, since people only speak louder when gestures are present. They increase the strength of the other signal.