Charisma Test

[Peanut]

It is hard to imagine a better example of scientific hubris than the "charisma test". Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology at Hertfordshire University, announced last week that he had identified the elusive quality that makes some personalities more magnetic than others. Natural leaders are, apparently, able to "infect" the people around them with their own emotions, just by being sufficiently confident and expressive. They can walk into any social situation and instantly change the atmosphere.

Prof Wiseman also claims to have devised a questionnaire that can tell you how charismatic you are. Can you, for instance, "energise a group with your enthusiasm"? Are you "comfortable with the idea of being a group leader"? Do heads turn when you walk into the room?

The trouble with this test is that it is actually a measure of self-image, rather than public image. Charismatic people tend to be brimming with confidence, and not overburdened with modesty; but it does not follow that immodest people are necessarily charismatic. On the contrary: the world is full of grandiose bores and wearisome jesters who never suffer a moment of self-doubt.

There is, moreover, the problem of disentangling charisma from its weaker cousin, charm. The former is, as Charles de Gaulle put it, "an elementary gift, a natural attitude". The latter, by contrast, is a skill that can be learnt: a conjuring trick involving wit, body language and a superficial élan. They teach it at public school, which is one of the main advantages of an expensive education.

I am sufficiently well-schooled that I can tick most of Professor Wiseman's boxes - "Do people tend to describe you as articulate?", "Can you keep calm when others lose their temper?" - but I do not kid myself that I am charismatic. If I were, I would not be so disastrously attracted to people who are.

...editing a tad here...

Most people, however alpha, are too constrained by empathy or good manners to be openly manipulative with another person's feelings. But charismatics often have a touch of the sociopath about them: their pity glands are underdeveloped, and they are fearless about breaking normal social codes. Like a cat flicking a beetle from paw to paw, they observe the struggles of their victims with a kind of detached, curious sadism.

The good news, from the beetle's point of view, is that charismatics usually get their comeuppance. A lucky few - Hitler, Napoleon, Genghis Khan - rise to the top, wreaking havoc on their way; but by and large, charisma palls with age. It is easy to create a personality cult in the playground, where there is a captive audience of frightened, susceptible creatures. One of the pleasures of adulthood is the freedom to walk away from bullies and sociopaths - or at the very least, to grumble about them to the personnel department.

Even I, three decades on, have finally heeded my mother's advice. I could not love a man who wasn't clever and funny and socially adept; but if I catch a whiff of that instinctive, almost bestial, magnetism, I run for the hills. Ultimately, charismatics are too brutal and narcissistic to live with. Or as the crime writer Brian Masters put it: "Evil is something you recognise immediately you see it: it works through charisma.".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m...5/29/ixop.html


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4579681.stm <--related article


Do you agree or disagree? Is "charisma" something that can be tested? Are charismatic people always narcissiatic and brutal? Run with it...

[Beelzebub]

I'm not brutal unless I have to be, but I have used my charisma to get what I want.

Besides I don't think it can be tested because people whom are charismatic are not always overt. People that turn heads are not necessarily very compelling. Questionnaires aren't exactly the best way to test either, she also assume all charismatic people are sociopath and even points out a mentally scarring case from her past. I would argue that perhaps they were sociopath before and used they charisma to get what they want after. You cannot tell me all sociopath are charismatic. If anything she sounds a little jealous that she does not posses the same power.

Anyway I will argue this time and time again. Everyone acts in his or her own interests, her wanting to be in the dominant group at school wasn’t just about friendship but about the power she could wield

[Ihavecontrolofu]

you can't test Charisma...thats just bs

just because people like me and are jealous of how easy going I can be and how they will do whatever I want when I want it doesnt mean I am brutal