‘Emotion that Goes Around Comes Around’. Political Charisma and the Emotions Conveyed through Social Media

In studying the processes of social influence, charisma is a matter of great importance for establishing a persuasive dialogue. Psycho-social research focused primarily on classical political media while neglecting the charisma conveyed by leaders through processes of self-presentation within computer-mediated interactions (i.e. social media). The first study analyses the charisma conveyed and the emotions expressed by Italian political leaders of three different orientations (center-left, center-right and no ideological orientation) from a multimodal perspective, considering both verbal and bodily aspects, pointing out three different "charismatic", self-presentation strategies in their Facebook videos and pictures. Results highlight how political and power positions can differentiate the type of charisma displayed and the emotions expressed in online settings. Furthermore, a second perceptual study tested the potential followers’ emotional and evaluative processes, showing how expressing negative emotions causes more negative emotions (sadness and bitterness) and evaluations (false, astute and dangerous) within the social media users perception, whereas an emotionally regulated charismatic politician can increase the users’ perception of their competence and thereby, raise their voting intentions.