Rafael Wilms

Leaders often engage in charisma signaling in times of crisis. But why do some crises elicit more charisma signaling from leaders than others? We theorize that crisis intentionality represents an important moderator of the crisis–charisma signaling relationship, with second-order beliefs about followers' felt crisis severity being a key psychological mechanism. In Study 1, we aimed to replicate the crisis–charisma signaling relationship with a regression discontinuity in time design based on 262 speeches from 9 women and 9 men U.S. governors before and after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Results showed that crisis did not increase charisma signaling. In Study 2, we used an experiment in which participants assumed the role of political leaders and formulated a speech as a crisis response (N = 750). The results showed that leaders signaled more charisma in the crisis conditions, especially in the intentional (vs. unintentional) crisis condition. Using an experimentally randomized instrumental variable approach, we showed that the crisis effect on charisma signaling was mediated through leaders' second-order beliefs about followers' felt crisis severity. We found no consistent gender differences in either study. Our article highlights the contextual nature of charisma signaling, its psychological mechanism, and adds to the debate about gender differences in leadership behaviors.