A paper on charisma and whether it is inherited in genes or if it is made through social influence.
By Hussein Hussein.
Keiser University.

Introduction
When thinking of charisma one is immediately brought back to the movie, Back to the Future, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The movie is based on a boy named Marty Mcfly, played by Michael J. Fox. Marty travels back in time in an automobile rigged with a flux capacitor by his scientist friend, played by Christopher Lloyd rightfully dubbed, Doc. At the beginning of the movie Marty’s parents, especially his father are un-happy and almost cowardly. As Marty meets his parents in the past he immediately finds out why. His father is a bullied “loser” who does not stick up for himself. He decides to change that. Throughout the movie Marty decides to help his father become a winner and stand up for himself. Spoiler alert for those whom have not seen the movie; he does. He helps his father finally stand up to his bully and get the girl of his dreams. Marty returns to the future only to find his father a strong and happy alpha male, with a successful business and even more successful marriage. Although this is a work of fiction, it helps put some perspective on the long debated question. Is Charisma inherited through genes or is it developed through certain circumstances in one’s life?
History
Charisma was first discussed by Max Weber, whom is a German sociologist and well versed in the study of psychopathology. When a child, he was an astute student of law, history, philosophy and economics at the Heidelburg University for three semesters. He went to the military and then returned to his studies at the University of Berlin, which earned him a law degree. He later got a PHD by completing his habitation thesis, which allowed him to obtain a place in the world of academia. He later explains; “Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is “set apart” from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.”(1. Weber M. In: ‘On Charisma and Institution Building’. Eisenstaedt SN, editor. Chicago: Yale University Press; 1977. [Re-issued]). To put Max Weber’s word in simple terms, he believed that no ordinary person could possess the true qualities of charisma and that it was only inherit in those who become leaders. Although Max’s words are poignant in explaining the power of charisma, they fails to mention how people possess it. Hence why some have coined his work open ended.
Although charisma has been widely discussed in sociology, psychology and many other sciences, it is a very elusive subject and has been discussed in many different ways. There is one things many researchers can agree on. That is, charisma has six characteristics.
According to the book The Encyclopedia of leadership written by George R. Goethals, George J Sorenson, and James MacGregor burns, the six characteristics of charisma are: emotionally expressive, enthusiastic, expressive, driven, eloquent, self-confident.
Emotional expression being the most recognizable and being a great communicator are the most important of the six. In fact, Dr. Dean Keith Simonton, who wrote a book called “why presidents succeed’ writes how American Presidents use language to make themselves more charismatic. Furthermore, he says the using words with basic emotion, sensation or vision, such as love, hate or evil are embodied with a richness the helps the speaker connect with the receiver. You have to be able to sense what others are feeling and then appeal to those emotions he explains. He believed that people didn’t really have an association with tough words, such as, “logic or concept” he adds, “I feel your pain” has a better association to the receiver. In simplest terms, Dr. Dean Keith Simonton is pretty much saying that when speaking to your audience, use terms they can understand. If you are talking to the middle class, use terms like Joe the plumber and so on.
Method and Reasearch
Dr. Achar of the Indian Psychiatric Association believes these traits are acquired through your forays in life. In fact, he heavily correlates the “gift” to having been deprived of a child hood, a child hood that is grown with the absence of a parental figure. Dr. Achar goes on to say, “Parental deprivation through death, separation or ineffectiveness often renders the child or adolescent insecure. Emotional handicap or disability is sought to be compensated by a quality of attractiveness. The charismatic’s gifts come to fruition through an intersection between his or her inner world and external social reality that continuously impinges on the individual and the collective psyche.”(Luis R. Valadez. ( 7,2014). Retrieved from http://www.learning-mind.com/the-magic-spark-that-shaped-man-charisma). For example if one child is neglected at home and not given the proper love and attention, they might seek it elsewhere, such as school. If successful they continue to do so by impressing others. Although Dr. Achar’s research is founded, but one might say that he is somewhat contradicting himself. If the child is indeed learning along the way to become a leader with certain adversities, the fact that he learned those traits are something he must have been born with. In fact some researchers like Professor David A Kenny, PHD, will state that although charismatic behaviors may not be something people are born with, the processes the person goes through in their life are the driving force behind charismatic traits. He researched how people judged others solely based appearance. The project, titled, “zero acquaintance” would sit people down and ask to them to look at peoples pictures and make predictions about their personality. He found that people were great at judging another’s extraversion, which in turn is relative to charisma and leadership. He adds, that Zero Acquaintance may help explain a certain aspect of charisma. Follower’s reaction to those with charismatic qualities maybe automatic. This suggest that some people might draw the loyalty of others by just being physically attractive or confident.
Throughout our lives we are told, do not judge a book by its cover. But we constantly defy that warning and do so on our daily routine. “The impact of faces is shown in our impressions of people as well as in our behavior towards them, such as whom we help, whom we hire, or whom we ask for a date” (Zebrowitz LA. Reading faces: Window to the soul? Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press; 1997).
We tend to lean more towards people with more attractive qualities. Zebrowitz continues by adding that attractive people are perceived to be more outgoing, socially competent, more powerful, sexually responsive, intelligent and healthy. (Zebrowitz LA, Hall JA, Murphy NA, 2002;28:238–249). This effect is called the “Attractiveness Halo”

The Halo Effect.
The Attractiveness Halo, also known as the Halo effect, is a cognitive bias where we as people come to a conclusion of how we feel about someone solely based on physical appearance. For instance, what is beautiful must also be good. This must do due the fact that when we were young we were socially trained VIA our entertainment medium that the protagonist such as, prince charming, Cinderella, superman and many more were all attractive, as opposed to the antagonist, who is predominately portrayed as ugly and jealous. The Halo effect was first coined in 1920 by Edward Thorndike in a paper called “the Constant Error in psychological ratings.” In the Experiment he asked commanding officers in the military to evaluate a variety of characteristics in their subordinates. These characteristics were, physical appearance, leadership, loyalty and intelligence. Edward found that the correlations were too high and too even. He wrote, For example, for the three raters next studied the average correlation for physique with intelligence is .31; for physique with leadership, .39; and for physique with character, .28." (Kendra Cherry, NA, What is the Halo Effect?). These finding indicate that the physique will most definitely affect the way people are judged.
While beauty may give some the upper hand in competition, it’s no silver bullet, wites, Mathew Kohut, co-author of the book “Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential.” The halo effect can have an immediate effect on one’s perception, but can quickly wear off once you start to see more of that person gives. In other terms a pretty face will not make up for sheer incompetence. People can quickly find out what one person is certainly made of once they get to know that person. Nowadays employers often have a security measure for the Halo effect. It is called the 3 month probation period. The 3 month probation period allows an employer to really gauge an employee and put their characteristics to the test. Within this 3 month period an employer has every right to wave an employee’s contract with the company. No reason has to be given. Although many do tend to give one anyways.

Conclusion
The study of charisma has a long way to go when comes to understanding it. The general consensus is that Charisma is something that you are not born with and that it is something that is somewhat trained into our psyche. That anyone can possess charisma with the right type of social influences. But some would big to differ it would seem. That a person would have to get lucky and be born with the proper physique and also possess the right type social up bringing to be a leader. Although the Halo effect would seem to play an important role in being taken more seriously, history would big to differ. Almost all the leaders the world has seen have been short on the physique department. For instance there were leaders like Gandhi who was a short and skinny man who beat an empire by leading his people to independence. Or how about Hitler, although his intentions were malicious, he was able to move the crowd and lead a nation into one of the biggest wars the world had seen. In fact maybe there should be different types of charisma with different classification. For instance charisma, although an embodiment of many characteristics, can be attained through many different circumstances. One might be able to be born with it, such as having the physique. One might be born to be a great speaker. One might have had the social upbringing that somehow made them a great leader. Or maybe one can study what it takes for people to be followers instead of leaders. Why people follow? Finding out why people have a tendency to follow and feel the need to be governed could give us the answer into how people can be leaders.
To be a great leader, one has to learn how to follow.

References.
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Dr. Simonton's Home Page. (n.d.). Retrieved July 22, 2015.
Zebrowitz, L. (2008, May 1). Social Psychological Face Perception: Why Appearance Matters. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
Cherry, Kendra. "What Is the Halo Effect?" About Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2015.
Crowell, Erin Long. "The Halo Effect: Definition, Advantages & Disadvantages - Video & Lesson
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