The art of charisma

What is it, who's got it — and how is politics being reshaped by the power of the X factor?

- Henry Mance

In 2013, a hospital in Birmingham, UK, hired workers to help with a Christmas fund-raising campaign. Some of the workers were given a charismatic induction speech, in which a professional actor told them they were doing "something special" and used his arms to make the point. Other workers were given a serviceable but less charismatic speech by the same man. By the end, the workers who heard the charismatic speech had stuffed 17 per cent more envelopes than those who had heard the standard speech.

Charisma had motivated them almost as much as the chance of a bonus, according to researchers at the universities of Lausanne, Milan and Zurich. Inspiration had rivalled compensation. Such experiments are not conclusive, but other evidence surrounds us.

Who wins elections, whose ideas spread, whose companies capture attention — the answer is often less rational than we think. The messenger often matters more than the message. Possibly the best rule of politics is that, in a genuine two-horse race, the more charismatic candidate will win. Mr Barack Obama beat Mr John McCain and Mr Mitt Romney. Mr Donald Trump beat Mrs Hillary Clinton and Ms Kamala Harris. Mr Joe Biden (2020 vintage) beat Mr Trump. It's the personality, stupid.

Charisma helps explain the success of populists like Ms Giorgia Meloni, centrists like Mr Mark Carney and progressives like Ms Jacinda Ardern. Charisma is a major reason that the experience-free radical Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for New York mayor. Voters bypassed the strongest candidate on paper, the competent but dull Mr Brad Lander.

Dull candidates do win, but generally only when the fundamentals lean heavily in their favour. When Mr Keir Starmer won the UK election, some commentators wondered whether the public were ready for sobriety. Fat chance. A year later, Mr Nigel Farage leads the polls.