Charisma is a costly signal

Vita Akstinaite; Ulrich Thy Jensen; Michalis Vlachos; Alexis Erne; John Antonakis

doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810

Charisma is a costly signal

Vita Akstinaite
, Ulrich Thy Jensen
, Michalis Vlachos
, Alexis Erne
, John Antonakis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Political Science - King Frederik Center for Public Leadership

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A key assumption in modern conceptualizations of charisma is that it is a costly signal. It thus should be easier for intelligent individuals to produce this signal: it requires one to be creative, communicate in symbolic ways, have the needed expertise, and be consistent in one's values and actions. At this time, it is unclear whether this assumption holds. Using data from an incentivized laboratory experiment (n = 1,998 general population) and two field settings (n = 134 public service leaders and n = 41 U.S. presidents), we show that individuals's charisma signaling scores strongly correlate with their scores on intelligence. A change of a standard deviation in intelligence was associated with changes in charisma signaling of 7.89 % (Study 1), 11.01 % (Study 2), as well as 5.70 %, 6.80 %, and 12.23 % (Study 3), respectively. In addition, Studies 1 and 2 showed that scores on personality dimensions—whether the big five or the big six—do not correlate with charisma signaling. Our results lay the foundations for explaining a mechanism for why charisma signaling is a potent motivational tool and thus have important theoretical and policy implications.

Original language	English
Article number	101810
Journal	Leadership Quarterly
Volume	35
Issue	6
ISSN	1048-9843
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Keywords

Charisma
Charisma signaling
Costly signaling
Intelligence
IQ

Access to Document

10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810

Library access?

Check availability with the Royal Danish Library

Cite this

@article{4967b520158b4bdca7d5c355e01655e9,

title = "Charisma is a costly signal",

abstract = "A key assumption in modern conceptualizations of charisma is that it is a costly signal. It thus should be easier for intelligent individuals to produce this signal: it requires one to be creative, communicate in symbolic ways, have the needed expertise, and be consistent in one's values and actions. At this time, it is unclear whether this assumption holds. Using data from an incentivized laboratory experiment (n = 1,998 general population) and two field settings (n = 134 public service leaders and n = 41 U.S. presidents), we show that individuals's charisma signaling scores strongly correlate with their scores on intelligence. A change of a standard deviation in intelligence was associated with changes in charisma signaling of 7.89 \% (Study 1), 11.01 \% (Study 2), as well as 5.70 \%, 6.80 \%, and 12.23 \% (Study 3), respectively. In addition, Studies 1 and 2 showed that scores on personality dimensions—whether the big five or the big six—do not correlate with charisma signaling. Our results lay the foundations for explaining a mechanism for why charisma signaling is a potent motivational tool and thus have important theoretical and policy implications.",

keywords = "Charisma, Charisma signaling, Costly signaling, Intelligence, IQ",

author = "Vita Akstinaite and Jensen, \{Ulrich Thy\} and Michalis Vlachos and Alexis Erne and John Antonakis",

year = "2024",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810",

language = "English",

volume = "35",

journal = "Leadership Quarterly",

issn = "1048-9843",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Charisma is a costly signal

AU - Akstinaite, Vita

AU - Jensen, Ulrich Thy

AU - Vlachos, Michalis

AU - Erne, Alexis

AU - Antonakis, John

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - A key assumption in modern conceptualizations of charisma is that it is a costly signal. It thus should be easier for intelligent individuals to produce this signal: it requires one to be creative, communicate in symbolic ways, have the needed expertise, and be consistent in one's values and actions. At this time, it is unclear whether this assumption holds. Using data from an incentivized laboratory experiment (n = 1,998 general population) and two field settings (n = 134 public service leaders and n = 41 U.S. presidents), we show that individuals's charisma signaling scores strongly correlate with their scores on intelligence. A change of a standard deviation in intelligence was associated with changes in charisma signaling of 7.89 % (Study 1), 11.01 % (Study 2), as well as 5.70 %, 6.80 %, and 12.23 % (Study 3), respectively. In addition, Studies 1 and 2 showed that scores on personality dimensions—whether the big five or the big six—do not correlate with charisma signaling. Our results lay the foundations for explaining a mechanism for why charisma signaling is a potent motivational tool and thus have important theoretical and policy implications.

AB - A key assumption in modern conceptualizations of charisma is that it is a costly signal. It thus should be easier for intelligent individuals to produce this signal: it requires one to be creative, communicate in symbolic ways, have the needed expertise, and be consistent in one's values and actions. At this time, it is unclear whether this assumption holds. Using data from an incentivized laboratory experiment (n = 1,998 general population) and two field settings (n = 134 public service leaders and n = 41 U.S. presidents), we show that individuals's charisma signaling scores strongly correlate with their scores on intelligence. A change of a standard deviation in intelligence was associated with changes in charisma signaling of 7.89 % (Study 1), 11.01 % (Study 2), as well as 5.70 %, 6.80 %, and 12.23 % (Study 3), respectively. In addition, Studies 1 and 2 showed that scores on personality dimensions—whether the big five or the big six—do not correlate with charisma signaling. Our results lay the foundations for explaining a mechanism for why charisma signaling is a potent motivational tool and thus have important theoretical and policy implications.

KW - Charisma

KW - Charisma signaling

KW - Costly signaling

KW - Intelligence

KW - IQ

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85202478225

U2 - 10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810

DO - 10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101810

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85202478225

SN - 1048-9843

VL - 35

JO - Leadership Quarterly

JF - Leadership Quarterly

IS - 6

M1 - 101810

ER -

Charisma is a costly signal

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Library access?

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this