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Rotman Executive SummaryAuthor: Rotman School of Management
In a world overloaded with opinions, hot takes and half-truths, the Rotman Executive Summary offers something rare: trusted insight. The Rotman Executive Summary cuts through the clutter to bring you research-backed insights from the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management Canadas leading business school. Each episode features Rotman faculty unpacking timely research and big ideas on the issues organizational leaders care about most: building compassionate and effective workplaces, navigating AI-driven changes, strategizing for chaos and more. These are ideas worth knowing delivered in brief, engaging conversations you can listen to anytime, anywhere. Whether youre a curious leader, a lifelong learner or someone who simply wants to understand whats really driving change in business and society, this podcast delivers credible, research-backed intelligence in under 20 minutes. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Management Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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The power of language: Make your writing more persuasive
Episode 8
Monday, 13 April, 2026
Are we being manipulated by the words we hear — and the ones we use? In this episode, marketing and psychology professor Sam Maglio unpacks the hidden signals embedded in everyday language, from why abbreviations can make you seem insincere to how tense and voice subtly shape what we believe. Listen in and how small shifts in wording influence perception, persuasion and even behaviour — and how to keep your inner psycholinguist on alert. Show notes [0:00] Ever feel like the words you hear are manipulating you? That’s because, in some cases, they are. [0:53] Meet Sam Maglio, a professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Toronto. [2:01] When it comes to the words we use, we’re probably not being critical enough about what we’re saying. [3:03] More often than not, what we’re saying isn’t being interpreted by the recipient in the way we mean (this is partially because we’re bad at perspective taking). [4:56] How does capitalization influence our perception of gender? [5:37] Abbreviations can make us seem less sincere. [7:43] Speaking in present tense makes us more believable… [8:50] …so does speaking in active voice. [9:25] But speaking in passive voice can give us an air of authority. [10:52] What does this all mean? Well, words are manipulative. This can be good; one famous study told a group of housekeepers at a hotel that they were exercising rather than working, and without making any other changes, that group lost weight. [12:10] But it can also be used to subtly sway your ability to believe in things like climate change. [12:36] We live in tech-bubbles that supercharge the spread of misinformation, which is bad when you think about the mere exposure effect. [13:17] So we need a bit of self-reflection to protect ourselves from being manipulated. [13:38] “I think part of it starts with being aware of how our psychology plays tricks on us. Our psychology makes us want to click on the clickbait, even though we might know it's not true. How many studies have you heard where people will post things or retweet things or like things, and they haven't even read the article, because if the world is on fire, then damn it, everyone needs to know that the world is on fire. Take a breath before that and like not be part of the problem, because it's very easy for a thump to turn into an echo, to turn into a chorus of all sorts of negative things.”
