“Judging a Book by Its Cover”: The Dominance of Delivery Over Content When Perceiving Charisma

Abstract

Perceived charisma is an outcome of message content and delivery, where the latter dominates the former. Framing perception of charisma within dual-process theories, we suggest a rapid processing of delivery and a slow processing of content. We aimed to track the differential processing speed of content and delivery that accounts for the delivery dominance. In two laboratory experiments, we manipulated content and delivery. Participants reported perceived charisma after viewing a presentation (Experiment 1) or moment-by-moment during the presentation (Experiment 2). The results confirmed the immediate influence of delivery on perceived charisma that was later either supported or revised by the content. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Myth busted? Challenging what we think we know about charismatic speech

“…Several comparable findings on the dominance of delivery over content have been made (Awamleh & Gardner, 1999;Gregory and Gallagher, 2002;Park et al, 2014). Just recently, Caspi et al (2019) conducted two experiments on the topic and found that delivery significantly outweighs the content when it comes to a first impression of a speaker, which is supported by the findings of McAleer et al (2014), who found that the delivery of a simple "hello" already critically affects the impression we make about a speaker personality. Sometimes even the visual cues such as gestures and posture are excluded from the how and the major role is solely attributed to the acoustic-prosodic features of charisma.…”

“…However, although the how is essential for a charismatic performance, to date there is not a single study that actually compares the charismatic effect of content against the charismatic effect of the delivery for neither definition of delivery. Following Emrich et al (2001) it is possible that delivery is crucial for the immediate impact of a charismatic performance but the effects diminish in the long run, if not supported by the content (see also Caspi et al, 2019). Accordingly, although this chapter strongly suggests that the how outweighs the what, we can neither completely reject nor accept the myth in this simple form.…”

Advancing higher-education practice by analyzing and training students' vocal charisma: Evidence from a Danish field study

“…The AVP technology was developed against the background that the speaker's voice is one of the key triggers of perceived speaker charisma (Chen et al 2014;Caspi et al 2019). Replicating and extending the results of previous studies (e.g., Rosenberg & Hirsch-berg 2009), the author and his team conducted several hundred contrastive acoustic analys-es of more and less charismatic speakers in order to determine which acoustic parameters in the tone of voice correlate with perceived speaker charisma and how.…”

“…Firstly, simply because charisma can be learned. Charisma is (with a few exceptions such as age or body height) a signaling system based on verbal and, in particular, non-verbal communication elements (Chen et al 2014;Caspi et al 2019). Strong speaker charisma can play an important role in the students' later professional lives.…”

In the eye of a leader: Eye-directed gazing shapes perceptions of leaders' charisma

“…This explains why eye contact has been considered in every study employing dramaturgical operationalizations of charismatic leadership (e.g. Caspi, Bogler, & Tzuman, 2019;Holladay & Coombs, 1994;Johnson & Dipboye, 2008).…”