Want to ask boss for a raise? Try including the word 'yeah' in your conversation.
Scientists have identified five words that can increase a speaker's persuasion during meetings - yeah, give, menu, start, meeting.
In the study of 95 meetings in US, researchers found that 'yeah' was the most persuasive word that can be used.
Been Kim and Cynthia Rudin, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that people who use these words to express ideas are more likely to have their views accepted by co-workers and bosses, ABC News reported.
"We find that many of these words are not specifically tied to the topic of the meeting but seem to be more generally persuasive," researchers said.
"'Yeah' makes the idea come across as if it were in line with previous thoughts by others, so the suggestion has a higher chance of being accepted," Kim and Rudin wrote in their study.
Another successful word is 'start' which may help with alliance building early on in the meeting, according to the research.
"Our hypothesis is that the word 'start' gives group members the opportunity to agree, where agreement of basic suggestions provides an indication that group members want to be productive during the meeting," researchers wrote.
They also suggested placing compliments before criticisms, instead of after, in order for them to appear more genuine.
Some of the non-persuasive words include 'recognition', 'speech', 'fair', 'selecting', 'flat', 'animals', 'middle', and 'bottom', according to the study.
