Russell Wardrop: What are words worth? A lot less than you think

Elvis is alive, man never walked on the moon and words account for 7 per cent of the impact when you speak. Well, there’s a guy works down the chip shop swears he’s Elvis and my late aunt Jeannie showed me the Hollywood set Neil Armstrong walked on. So Albert Meharabian’s 1967 study – that impact from speech is broken down as 7 per cent words, 38 per cent voice, 55 per cent body language – is the only one I know that is ­nonsense.