Charismatic leaders influence followers not only by evoking positive emotions but also by inducing an "awestruck effect," which paradoxically suppresses outward emotional expression and impairs critical thinking, leading to a heightened susceptibility to the leader's message and vision.
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on 24th of July 2008 I attended a talk
by Barack Obama and that talk has
changed my life
not because of what he said actually but
because of what happened during a talk
at the time I was a young doctoral
student trying to better understand how
charismatic leadership works I asked
myself questions such as why do
charismatic leaders have such great sway
over how people think and behave why is
it so many of us for for charismatic
leaders and follow them now of course I
had done my research right I mean I had
looked into the book so I had read
journal papers and so on and I had come
across one explanation again and again
and that explanation was that
charismatic leaders tend to fill us with
positive emotions now and because we all
like to have positive emotions we tend
to stick around these leaders and we
tend to stick up for these leaders the
logic here is pretty simple right
charismatic leaders bind us because they
make us feel good but when I was at that
talk by Barack Obama I came to realize
that this is only half of the story
and that there was another half that
still needed to be told so the speech by
Barack Obama took place in Berlin it was
part of his election campaign in 2008
and here you can see a picture of the
moment when Barack Obama stepped onto
the podium and because I had arrived
three hours earlier I actually managed
to get myself a spot in the first row so
here you can see me behind my mobile
phone of course is everyone these days
you know I took a picture of this member
of a moment as he stepped onto the stage
to give his speech
and over the course of the afternoon
over 200,000 people actually gathered to
listen to Barack Obama next to me you
can see Sarah who was there with her two
young boys because we both arrived three
hours early we had a little bit of time
to chat so I learned from Sarah that she
was American and that her husband was in
the military and that as a family they
were stationed in Germany which is why
she came to this speech and she told me
of the painful uncertainty of her family
that because her husband was flying
missions to Iraq each time they said
goodbye to him they never knew whether
he would actually return so Barack Obama
stepped onto the stage and everybody was
cheering and applauding as you can see
in this picture but then he raised his
voice thanked everyone and the speech
began I come to Berlin as so many of my
countrymen have come before although
tonight I speak to you not as a
candidate for president but as a citizen
a proud citizen of the United States and
a fellow citizen of the world and so the
speech slowly began to unfold it's magic
and two hundred thousand people felt
quiet and I myself you know I felt
myself getting drawn into this speech
feeling moved and mesmerized about sort
of how he told his own story and
connected it with the story of Berlin
and our common yearning for freedom and
he get that that warm feeling of Hope
somewhere somewhere here you know and
it's it's you feel like you're part of
something bigger and you get almost
carried away by this emotion and at that
point I remind myself that I was
actually at this speech that was the
reason I was there for scholarly
purposes you know I started charismatic
leadership so I had a rifle at a speech
I wanted to analyze this speech look
around and see what's happening so as
hard as it was
myself out of the magic try to sort of
distance myself from these wonderful
feelings that was stirred by this
charismatic superhero and looked around
so I began to look over you know Sarah
was on my left side so I looked to Sarah
and I thought you know what I'll be
seeing what I was expecting would be
lots of positive emotions right that's
what essentially I'd learn from the
books but the reality was the rare no
positive emotions in fact Sarah was
looking just like this so I looked at
the other direction and it turns out he
now most people were like no positive
emotion really it was just it was like
frozen in a way now that's not to say
that they didn't feel positive emotions
right I'm sure everybody was just like I
mean it's a go deeply moved and touched
by the story but it wasn't showing up on
the face or in the posture anywhere it
just was deep inside it was not
expressed that also doesn't mean that it
was never expressed I mean occasionally
Barack Obama gave us permission to chair
and chant and so people woke up cheer
and shot and yes we can and all that
stuff at the time okay but only to fall
back into this zero expression moment
shortly after right now this was against
everything that I had read in the books
what I was seeing a witnessing here was
definitely a different story and my
began my brain began to race and I
thought you know maybe there's something
in there in here that offers a genuine
discovery of the workings of charismatic
leadership now the speech eventually
came to an end
and Barack Obama stepped from the podium
but rather than walking away he actually
walked towards us Sarah and me it was
like oh gosh this is my prime
opportunity to have a real life
a real charismatic leader that I could
put even into my dissertation maybe but
guys all I got was a handshake and all
he moved but Sarah maybe because she was
American had a vote in the election got
considerably more attention so Barack
Obama actually caringly listened to her
story and and gave her a hug and because
I was a touched by his moment I actually
took a picture of the two in that moment
sir it's just able to hold up that old
mobile phone took a picture and as he
can see once barack obama was providing
her with the individual attention her
emotions were actually pouring out her
mug from where showing but this moment
as all great moments eventually passed
and so Sarah and I found ourselves
amidst a dissipating crowd and before
our ways parted I just asked Sarah so
Sarah how did you like the speech I was
just wanting to check whether she
actually had felt it and she was saying
like it was awesome okay must been
terrific then it was just great but he
know the scholar that I am I tried to
specify that a little bit so I asked so
what were the three things that you
liked the most
she was like oh I don't know it was
everything was it was just amazing I was
so touched it was great I said it's do
anything that specifically nothing
wonderful all wonderful
so we said goodbye and I haven't seen
Sarah ever since but I've learned
something from her that afternoon that
has fundamentally changed my
understanding of charismatic leadership
and that has sparked decade nearly of
research on charismatic leadership it is
true that charismatic leaders instilled
positive emotions in us they make us
feel great excitement enthusiasm
passionate energy all that is true but
they also put us in awe and because we
admire them so much we tend to hold back
our emotions in an almost instinctive
effort to show our deference to them to
acknowledge their soup
status it reminded me of a quote I had
read from the early social psychologist
mcdougal here's the quote in the case of
a person who we intensely admire we
become shy like a child in the presence
of an adult stranger with the impulse to
shrink together to be still and to avoid
attracting his attention now I think
this is exactly what happens in the
context of charismatic leadership we
have amazed yet a bit intimidated with
full of admiration and yet a little bit
too shy to express it right in one word
if you like we are awestruck right
awestruck full of emotion yet unable to
express them now it turns out it wasn't
just sarah's and the others that
afternoon that suffer from this
particular phenomenon in fact in
carefully crafted experiments and
studies that we conducted ever since
we've shown again and again and we need
confront people with caring medic
leaders their emotional expert Civet e
becomes subdued and so we've come to
call this the awestruck effect of
charismatic leaders they make is full of
emotion and yet unable to express them
now you may wonder okay so but what do
we actually even care about the
emotional exclusivity of followers right
why does it matter why is the awestruck
effect important well it turns out that
psychologists have shown for many years
that when people suppress the expression
of their emotion as they do in their
awestruck the intensity of the emotion
increases inside of them but they also
suffer from a cognitive decrement and
that means that they're less able to
understand memorize and scrutinize
messages now this is exactly what
happened to Sarah that afternoon right
she felt great about the speech and yet
when asked what she remembered couldn't
recall anything right even when asked
again nothing there right
Obama had stirred her heart and her head
had been busy processing these emotions
but not the message
now to illustrate that point a little
bit further let me tell you quickly
about a study that we conducted at our
Business School we invited a speaker and
asked that speaker to give two talks
both talks should have the same content
but one should be delivered in a very
charismatic way making people awestruck
and the other one should just be
delivered as a normal talk and then
after both talks we asked the members in
the audience so how much do you think
you remember and we recorded our answer
but next and they didn't know that would
come up we gave them an actual memory
test checking how much they actually
remember of the speech and so we scored
that and then we made an astonishing
discovery the people who had heard the
charismatic talk they thought they would
remember a lot they were very confident
yes I remember it was great I remember I
take a lot away from this talk but truth
be told on the actual memory test they
didn't do all that well in fact they did
relatively poorly as he can see here now
contrast that to the people who had
attended the normal talk they actually
thought they didn't take much away from
the talk longer talk you know no
excitement and so on
they didn't thought you think that they
would take a lot away but in fact they
did they remembered significantly more
than the ones who had attended the
charismatic talk now what this shows us
is that when we attend a charismatic
speech we think we understand memorize
you know sort of fully comprehend what
the charismatic leader is telling us but
in fact we don't okay now you may wonder
does that have any implications for
followership you know now in that study
that I just showed you we gave people an
opportunity after the talk to literally
follow the speaker to the coffee lounge
you know have a cup of coffee tea
together have a bit of a chat and so on
that turns out that those who thought
that they had taken a little away from
the talk thus the peep
mostly in the charismatic condition were
most likely to follow the speaker to the
coffee lounge but that was completely
independent of whether they had actually
taken anything away so when they
understood this stuff doesn't matter
once they felt great about it once they
felt confident they had something taken
away they follow and that means we
follow her as many leaders in part
because of the awestruck effect now when
I present this stuff then usually you
know at some point a hand goes up and so
on us so okay get the second part of the
story now the first part with the
positive emotions is that actually right
weren't there leaders that sort of
steered anger hate and aggression and
we're in these sometimes charismatic
leaders - yeah I think not every
charismatic leader has an all positive
emotion as Obama had but it turns out
that all charismatic leaders try to
instill their followers with positive
emotions but some still stir anger hate
fear all of that stuff but they do so to
target it to an out-group some other
people that are to blame for you know
our bad feelings here and so they push
the emotion away from them that's
relieving their own folks their own
in-group their own followers from these
negative emotions creating a positive
emotion instead it's us the great versus
them despicable and inevitably the next
hand goes up and some on us so can this
actually play explain why sometimes
people follow charismatic leaders even
if they lead them over to lick lick over
the edge of the cliff is sure I mean you
know if you're all struck you don't even
notice that you're wandering towards the
edge of the cliff right you're happy on
a sinking ship you're all like it's all
great and you don't get what's happening
in the world in fact 52 follow-up
studies showing people at Icarus medic
leaders or normal leaders and then
checked whether they would cheat but
taking away a little bit more money than
they were supposed to in the end or
whether they would lie to us turns out
people in the charismatic who had been
exposed to charismatic leadership were
significantly more likely to treat and
lie after having been exposed to that
type of leadership contrasted to the
people who've seen normal leadership now
does that mean charismatic leadership is
all bad I've struggled with that
question for a long time and I think
it's neither good or bad what
charismatic leadership is is a powerful
way to influence us charismatic leaders
want to change the world they want to
convince us of a bold vision they want
to take us along on a moon on a new
journey they want to set new moral
standards and to do so they must to some
degree mood our skepticism and criticism
make our hat draw a blank and forget our
differences right and instead unite on
the common course and that's what the
awestruck effect can do it can ply this
to call the arguments and it can make us
break with prevailing norms and go for
new ones that can bring about major
societal change it can be and it often
has been a force for good but it can
also be a force for evil the awestruck
effect can make us vulnerable to bind to
the wrong vision to be dazzled by
seemingly simple yet deeply flawed
solutions and to ignore the moral
deficiencies of charismatic leaders who
appeal to our heart and so I think I
want to conclude this talk on a piece of
advice and that advice is simply that
you need to be aware of this awestruck
effect know it and tell it to others
but beware it doesn't mean to avoid it altogether
altogether
beware means that you carefully choose
the leaders that you follow that you
carefully choose your charismatic
leaders check their message in cold
daylight try to see them as the person
they are not as the superhero that they
pitch themselves when Barack Obama
stepped down from the podium and gave
Sara individual attention she saw him as
the person he was and she opened up her
emotions were pouring out and if you
like the person if you like their
message then give in to the awestruck
effect it can fill you with amazing emotions
emotions
enthusiasm anger excitement not anger
excitement passion energy all the
positive stuff that these leaders tend
to fill us with and these emotions can
carry you forward they can allow this
the charismatic leader to make a change
in your life and does give you the
chance to take your part to play your
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