Visuals Dominate Investor Decisions about Entrepreneurial Pitches

Entrepreneurs and investors often deem substantive content to be particularly important as they evaluate the potential value of business propositions. Yet across 12 studies 1,855 participants using live entrepreneurial pitch competitions, silent videos—but not sound recordings, video-with-sound or transcriptions—best allowed both experts novices identify original investors’ selections winning pitches. These results suggest that people’s judgment may highly influenced by visual information. Further, people do seem fully recognize how much information factors into their decisions, such neglect more metrics explicitly cite core decisions. The findings highlight power dynamic cues—including gestures, facial expressions, body language—and demonstrate visible passion can dominate propositions in competitions.