Abstract:
Former United States President Ronald Reagan\'s use of media and his charismatic connection with viewers earned him the moniker \"the great communicator\". One aspect of his charisma, the influence of elicited laughter, during a highly critical 5-minute news story by CBS reporter Leslie Stahl during the 1984 US presidential election is examined here. Two experiments examining the effects of audience laughter on perceptions of charismatic leadership are reported. In the first experiment the effects of audience laughter in response to Reagan\'s comments were investigated. Here, Reagan\'s perceived warmth as an effective leader significantly diminished when strong laughter is removed, whereas perceptions of competence remained unaffected. The second study carried out on an older cohort replicated and extended the first in a pre-registered design by considering the perception of trait charisma. Here, the presence or absence of audience laughter did not affect judgements of charisma. Additionally, the affective response before, and then after, the presentation of the news story was measured. Emotions associated with a positive appraisal all decreased after being shown the news story while emotions associated negative appraisal all increased. However, only participant anger was significantly increased when audience laughter was removed. Taken together the findings of both studies converge on the fact that subtle changes in media presentation of political leaders can have a significant effect on viewers. The findings show that even after 40 years in office the social psychological effects of presidential charisma can still influence observers.
摘要:
美国前总统罗纳德·里根(RonaldReagan)对媒体的使用以及他与观众的魅力联系使他赢得了“伟大的传播者”的绰号。他魅力的一个方面,引起的笑声的影响,在1984年美国总统大选期间,CBS记者莱斯利·斯塔尔(LeslieStahl)发表了非常重要的5分钟新闻报道。据报道,有两个实验研究了观众的笑声对魅力领导力的影响。在第一个实验中,研究了观众笑声对里根评论的影响。这里,当强烈的笑声被消除时,里根被认为是一个有效的领导者的温暖显着减少,而对能力的看法不受影响。通过考虑特质魅力的感知,在较旧的队列上进行的第二项研究在预先注册的设计中复制并扩展了第一项。这里,观众是否有笑声并不影响对魅力的判断。此外,之前的情感反应,然后之后,新闻故事的呈现被测量。与正面评价相关的情绪在显示新闻故事后全部减少,而与负面评价相关的情绪全部增加。然而,当观众的笑声被消除时,只有参与者的愤怒显着增加。综上所述,两项研究的结果都集中在一个事实上,即政治领导人的媒体表现的微妙变化可能会对观众产生重大影响。研究结果表明,即使在任职40年后,总统魅力的社会心理影响仍然会影响观察者。