Investigating the link between charismatic signalling, deception and punishment: results from two lab experiments (with Victoria Valle Lara and Mahshid Khademi)
Charismatic signalling has attracted a fair share of attention in research and media have turned charisma into a must-have for leaders. Leaders are expected to be charismatic and academic evidence suggests for instance that leaders who use charismatic signalling can increase workers’ productivity, influence voting patterns in presidential elections and increase their impact on social media. There is however a lack of evidence regarding the potential costs of charismatic signalling. In this research project, we investigated the link between charismatic signalling, deception - that is not respecting one's word - and punishment, or in other words: does charisma affect how followers react to deception? We present the results of two lab experiments that use variations of a trust game.