Moral and Reptilian Charisma: Their Measurement and Relationships with Speaker Nonverbal Behaviors, Communicator Style, Audience Emotions and Gender

A charisma measure based on Weber?s theory was developed and tested. Three studies were conducted in order to assess whether charisma has one or more dimensions, and explore the extent to which charisma is a property of the leader, the audience, their relationship or the situation. In Study 1, ratings of speeches of well-known politicians yielded two factors. Moral charisma emphasizes pride in and respect for the leader?s task and calling, whereas reptilian charisma involves the leader?s emotional power, vitality, and vigor. In Study 2, Ps rated the most or least charismatic person they knew. In Study 3, coders rated 200 speech segments lasting ten seconds each. All three studies demonstrated that charisma has two dimensions, a moral and a reptilian. The studies further help understanding the diverse styles of various charismatic leaders and also of nonleaders. When judgments of charisma could be done, partitioning the variance of charisma indicated that it largely resides in the leader and his or her relationship with the audience.