The Perception of Charisma from Voice: A Cross-Cultural Study

This paper provides an overview of previous works on the acoustic parameters of charismatic voice and illustrates MASCharP, a scale for measuring the perception of charisma in voice. A study is then presented on the perception of charisma through the temporal and pitch structure of the voices of an Italian and a French politician. Results show some cultural differences in charisma perception and how acoustic features such as pitch (normal, higher, or lower) and types of pauses (short or long) can affect the Proactive-Attractive and Calm-Benevolent dimensions of charisma. The same dimension of charisma can be conveyed by different acoustic correlates of voice by connecting them to the dimension of leader extraversion-introversion.