Quick thinking makes people charismatic

Charisma may rely on quick thinking, according to new research. People who respond more quickly to general knowledge questions and visual tasks are seen as more charismatic.

The results of the study published in Psychological Science show that participants who accomplished the given tasks faster were perceived as more charismatic. The association between ability to think quickly on one’s feet and charisma remained even after general intelligence and personality were taken into account.

“Our findings show that social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to do,” said Bill von Hippel, the study’s lead researcher, in a press release. “Social intelligence also requires an ability to execute, and the quickness of our mind is an important component of that ability.”

The researchers investigated charisma by asking the participants’ friends to rate how charismatic, funny and quick-witted they were. To measure mental speed, the participants answered 30 common-knowledge questions, such as naming a precious gem, as quickly as possible. The researchers also tested how fast the participants located a dot or identified a pattern.

“Although we expected mental speed to predict charisma, we thought that it would be less important than IQ,” Hippel added. “Instead, we found that how smart people were was less important than how quick they were. So knowing the right answer to a tough question appears to be less important than being able to consider a large number of social responses in a brief window of time.”

The researchers note that public figures, whom many find charismatic, are quick on their feet. Mental speed may also enable people to hide an inappropriate response or make humorous associations on the spot. This proves that mental speed is important in socialisation. Hence, socialising requires more than just familiarising specific social rules and concepts.

"Social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to say," Hippel told the Huffington Post. "It’s also the capacity to say it in a timely fashion."

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