Joep Cornelissen of Erasmus University and his team asked experienced investors to watch a video of an entrepreneur pitching a new device. He did four versions of the presentation: One used a lot of figurative language; one included frequent hand motions; one deployed both; and one used neither. People who saw the video with only the frequent gestures were on average 12% more interested in investing. The conclusion: When you pitch an idea, gestures matter more than words.
A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2019 issue (pp.36–37) of Harvard Business Review.