New research published in the journal Cognitive Science provides evidence that the fluidity of a person’s speech influences how knowledgeable they appear to others. The findings indicate that speakers who use “ums,” “ahs,” and corrections are consistently rated as less knowledgeable than those who speak fluently. But the presence of hand gestures, regardless of their type or frequency, does not appear to mitigate this negative perception. Communication is a complex process that involves much more than just the words spoken. When humans interact, they rely on a multimodal system that includes speech, hand movements, eye gaze, and facial expressions. Previous studies suggest that hand gestures play a significant role in this dynamic. Gestures often help listeners understand information and can even make a speaker seem more persuasive or likeable. At the same time, speech is rarely perfect. It often contains disfluencies, which are temporary pauses, errors, or filler sounds that interrupt the flow of language. These verbal stumbles can signal that a speaker is hesitant or experiencing difficulty planning their next words. “Two main factors …