Research

The role of the physical environment in charisma attributions
Charisma is conceptualized as an attribution that followers grant their leader, based on their leader’s looks, words, and behaviors. Once followers attribute charisma to their leader, they are particularly receptive to the leader’s influence. In my current research together with Jochen Menges and Nicolas Bastardoz we investigate how charisma attributions are affected by the physical environment followers see their leader in. This is a particularly interesting factor to study as any leader will always be in some physical environment and thus, effects of the environment, would be relevant for any leader. Our results so far indicate that followers do not only consider the leader, but also the environment in forming their charisma attributions.