9 Ways to Increase Your Charisma

When Prince finished a showcase performance in a small Minneapolis movie theater on January 7, 1979, the Warner Records representatives walked out shaking their heads. Prince couldn’t believe it. Not ready for a tour? How was he supposed to sell any records?

But the label believed its new artist wasn’t a good enough performer to make a tour profitable. Prince was an excellent musician, they knew, but he lacked charisma. He needed to develop the ability to get people excited about his music by getting excited about him. Instead of signing off on a concert schedule, they sent him back to the studio to record a second album.

Prince made the album and, propelled by the success of its first single, “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” it entered the Billboard charts. Finally, Warner saw enough momentum to risk sending the still-awkward performer on the road. A lucky break came when singer Rick James, of “Super Freak” fame, invited Prince to open for him on his 1980 Fire It Up Tour.

“I felt sorry for him,” James later recalled. At first, anyway.

Prince began the tour with no knowledge of how to engage the crowd. But he was determined to improve, and he did. He schooled himself on how to be more charismatic on stage. He adopted the tactics of performers he admired, including James himself.

Prince believed that charisma could be practiced and perfected—and he was right.

By the end of that tour Prince commanded audiences, leading call-and-response chants, wowing them with dance moves, even flipping the microphone. Fans were so riled up by Prince’s performances, James felt overshadowed.

How did Prince get that good? By decoding—and mastering—the communication strategies that constitute a charismatic rock performance.

A team of management scholars headed by John Antonakis of the University of Lausanne Business School decided to do the samewith workplace charisma. They broke it down to a few concrete, learnable strategies, which they then taught to a group of randomly-selected middle managers through a five-hour group workshop and one-hour individual coaching session. Three months later, 360-degree evaluations revealed that the managers who had received the training were perceived as more charismatic, more competent, and more trustworthy on the job than before the intervention.(link is external with workplace charisma. They broke it down to a few concrete, learnable strategies, which they then taught to a group of randomly-selected middle managers through a five-hour group workshop and one-hour individual coaching session. Three months later, 360-degree evaluations revealed that the managers who had received the training were perceived as more charismatic, more competent, and more trustworthy on the job than before the intervention.Most advice for improving charisma consists of vague prescriptions like, "Show confidence.” But while it’s true that confidence increases perceptions of charisma, it's hard to fake. So is warmth, another common denominator of charismatic people. But the following tactics identified by Antonakis and colleagues are relatively easy to learn, adopt, and implement:

• Use metaphors. You use metaphors whenever you compare your group to an army on the march or a sports team. Lady Gaga uses metaphor when she refers to her fans as “Little Monsters.” Prince invoked a powerful metaphor when he appeared on television with the word “slave” written across his cheek. Metaphors are charismatic because they simplify and stir people’s emotions and imagination.
• Use stories and anecdotes. Personal stories can be used to great effect, especially stories of early struggles and challenges and how you overcame them. Rock stars use stories to make a stronger connection between their audience and their music. Paul McCartney, for example, introduces many live songs with an anecdote about the person the song is about. Others tell stories about things that happened to them in the town hosting the show.
• Show moral conviction. Moral significance makes your message more meaningful. By appealing to the “right thing to do,” you reinforce core shared values and stir others to action. Rock stars display moral conviction to strengthen their bond with their audience. U2 had fans march around the stage with pictures of then-imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi on their 360-degree Tour. Madonna printed “Pussy Riot” on her back during her MDNA tour in support of the imprisoned Russian group. And late Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch organized the Tibetan Freedom concerts, rallying fans and fellow musicians for Tibetan independence.
• Express shared feelings as others. By revealing that you feel the same way as others do, you increase their identification with you. Statements such as, “I am just as overwhelmed as you are," or, "I am elated at this opportunity,” strengthen your emotional connection. Musicians also use shared feelings. Neil Young, though he's 68 years old, still acts like an “angry young man,” sharing feelings of disillusionment with his audiences.
• Set high expectations and communicate confidence. By expecting much from others and yourself, you inspire those around you to be more than they are now. But it’s not enough to set high expectations: You have to let others know that you believe in them. When Prince signed and produced the band The Time for Warner Brothers, he insisted that they improve their stage show. According to then-keyboard player Jimmy Jam, Prince insisted that all band members sing harmony and dance while they played. “That’s what Prince did, time and again,” Jam said. “He taught us we could do things we’d never believed we could.”
• Use contrasts to frame and focus messages. Contrasts are powerful rhetorical devices because they emphasize. Contrasting statements such as “Rather than counting how many hours you’ve put in, we care about how much value you create," or, "Most companies are letting people go but we’re hiring,” send a strong message. Rock stars do this, too: Madonna contrasts herself with Lady Gaga, singing “She’s not me!” on her MDNA tour. And Lady Gaga contrasts herself with performers who lip sync.
• Use lists. Lists boost charisma because they give the impression of completeness. They send a message that you have a coherent understanding of an issue. For example, when you say “The new rules will affect us in three major ways,” you position yourself as an expert on an unknown topic.
• Use rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions draw other people in: “Is everyone having a good time tonight?” They also create anticipation. When you ask, “Where do we go from here?” you’ve got others hanging on every word.
• Use nonverbal strategies to animate your words. By animating your body language, you engage others. Body gestures, facial expressions, and a vocal tone that demonstrate passion leave more memorable impressions, whether on a stage or around a meeting table.

Prince is now one of pop’s greatest performers. He believed that charisma could be learned—and he proved it. And like him, you can learn to have a more powerful effect on others.

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5 Tips to Make Yourself More Attractive

Finding a date isn't easy for many people. Sure, you Imagine if you're some kind of introvert, or CHUD, or a shut-in of an Internet comedy writer...are you supposed to join online forums and talk about your love of anime and bug collecting until the one day someone who bathes regularly and doesn't have night terrors about "the institute" signs up and says hello to you? Heck no! You're supposed to exploit every single quirk and oddity science says can help you be more appealing to help you find at least one human who won't fall asleep every time you start talking about your theories on the similarities between Warhammer and Pokemon. Yes, there are scientifically tested ways to be more appealing. Yes, they are more surprising and varied than the old reliable "put on a nice smelling fragrance so people think you smell good." Yes, they're a lot easier than you think. For instance ...

5. Master Your Facial Hair

Men and a select group of hirsute ladies are burdened with an ever-lengthening shag that oozes from their faces like the blob squeezing its way through a pasta strainer. Some choose to allow this growth to Duck Dynasty itself all over the place in the form of erratic and ghastly beards that collect food scraps and small birds, while others choose to do what that guy in The Hunger Games does and use an electric trimmer to shave a geometric mental breakdown on their own faces. Some simply remove it all. But not so fast! Science tells us we can use that old-growth Connecticut Valley shrubbery to our advantage when it comes to boudoir adventuring.

According to sensual research conducted in Australia, so you know it's life-or-death awesome, women rate heavy stubble as the most attractive kind of facial hair a man can have, above full beards, light stubble, and clean-shaven. Rick from The Walking Dead is a nonstop Big O for the ladies. Plus, it's great for scratching itches!

Why so sexy with stubble but not a full beard? The hypothesis is that it's a balance of masculinity and aggressiveness. With stubble you look manly and mature. With a full beard you look like dad or a crazy mountain cannibal, neither of which ranks particularly high on the average woman's scale of sexual attraction. With no stubble or just light stubble you look like a desperately hormonal tween who couldn't find a woman's happy place with Sherpa guides and a GPS. So get yourself to that furry sweet spot of lust and watch the ladies roll on in. Or at least not cringe in revulsion when you walk past.

4. Don't Smile (Unless You're a Woman)

Guys, what's your first reaction when you see a hot lady person across the pudding line? Do you drop your eyes like a palsied eagle dropping eggs, or do you flash your pearly whites in an electrifying grin that would make even the most pious of nuns quiver? Well, it better be the former, because the latter isn't nearly as charming as you think.

Sociologists in British Colombia, Canada's hotbed of sex science, conducted a study that showed men who smile are less attractive to women overall than men who opt for a more brooding or swaggering expression, which you can safely assume means men who act like vampires or pirates are where it's at, and, let's be honest, that makes sense in Hollywood terms.

On the other side of things, it turns out smiling women are the bee's knees to most men, while a woman who demonstrates pride and confidence through facial expression, presumably by way of a triumphant sneer or chewing on the arm of one of her victims, is considered undesirable, and we won't blame you for going straight to the comments and calling that sexist right now.

So why is a smiling man so damned unappealing? Why is Pennywise destined for loneliness? Because men who smile are judged to be more feminine and less dominant. Maybe that's why the Joker committed all those crimes: he was just lonely. Poor fella.

3. Get a Dog

Do you know why Voltron was so successful? Unlike you, it was five people in powerful, colorful, cat-like robots. You can't hope to be anywhere near that awesome walking around in the cat-less flesh sack you call a body. Not alone. That's why you need a dog; it's simple math. You and a dog are more powerful in all ways, including seduction, than you are alone. Voltronenomics don't lie.

Science and religion tell us that Bradley Cooper is a handsome man, and even a straight online comedy writer might want to hold him ever so close because he looks like he wears cologne that smells like chopped wood and would be warm and comforting like grandma's chicken noodle soup poured into a bowl shaped like a man with the most charming and rugged smile you ever swooned over. But if you gave Bradley Cooper an adorable wiener dog, well, now you just have to give up being straight and bed him this instant in an urgent yet gentle and fulfilling way. I mean, I think that's how it works.

According to a study that compared dudes asking for things like bus fare or phone numbers without a dog and then with a dog, men are three times more likely to score a phone number if they have a dog with them. That's impressive as hell. The numbers break down to about 1-in-4 women asked giving over their numbers to a dog walker. Think of how many you could rack up in a day at that rate? Several, probably! Unless you live at an all-boys school or in prison or something, in which case you've got bigger problems to deal with than finding a dog to score you some booty.

Ladies, the puppy effect works for you, too. Women with a dog were more likely to be given money for the bus when they asked, and the amount they were given was higher. Use this knowledge to fleece men who are trying to use dogs to get your phone number.

2. Talk Like a Man (Unless You're a Woman)

Have you ever heard a recording of your own voice and thought, "Good God, I sound like a balloon deflating around a room into shriveled flaccidity"? No? Well, have you ever heard a recording of your own voice and at least been somewhat surprised by how you sound? That's a pretty common phenomenon, a result of the acoustics in our own skulls making us sound different to ourselves than we do to everyone else. In fact, you may think you sound like one suave cat out on the town, while the people listening to you think you sound like the noise "never having sex again" makes when it bathes in rotten garbage. That's not the sound you want.

Turns out that the sounds we make do have an effect on attracting potential mates, and not just those attractive hoots and catcalls that men assume women love hearing out on the streets -- speaking voices too. Men tend to find women with higher-pitched voices more attractive, because it indicates a smaller body size, while the reverse is appealing to women: a man with a deeper voice at least sounds bigger and more masculine. However, as a caveat, women prefer a touch of "breathiness" in that deep voice, which apparently means manly but not aggressive. So, like a refined caveman who won't club you but will bench press a stegosaurus before tearing off his mammoth-skin and ravaging you against the haunch of a T. rex. See all those caveman references? Good stuff.

Changing the pitch of your voice can therefore alter people's perception of you, as long you don't do it in the wrong way. A man with a high-pitched voice is attractive to fewer people (sorry, Truman Capote) and a woman with a voice like a semi-truck is just as unlucky in love (sorry, Bea Arthur). This is why Barry White is the soundtrack to love: he sounds like a blue whale digesting red wine and chocolate.

1. Color Your World Red

This one is so easy it seems like cheating, but if science says it then it can't be wrong, because the alternative is anarchy and chaos. If you've ever hoped for a magical charm you could put on to make yourself look more attractive, it turns out such a thing exists and is a St. Louis Cardinals jersey. Or anything red, really. Red is the official color of sex, even in our subconscious, where all sorts of nefarious things are plotted by our brain and then enacted without ever asking us permission.

Women shown photos of men against a red background and a white background routinely rate the red one as more attractive, even if it's the same guy. Conversely, straight men couldn't tell the difference between the man on red versus the man on white, meaning it's likely linked to sexual attraction.

Even better for you in your nifty red sweater: men in red are viewed as having a higher social status with more likelihood of being successful. All you have to do is wear red all the time and you'll convince everyone you're some manner of Man-God.

On the flip side, ladies were deemed more attractive when they wore red, and men were willing to spend more money on a date with a woman in red than in any other color, which explains why ladies in burlap never get to go to elegant restaurants. Men also tend to give higher tips to waitresses in red, so keep that in mind if you work in the service industry. Why is red the go-to color for dudes? Men perceive women in red as being more sexually ready to go, which isn't always full-on delusional, as women will play up to this as well. Women on hook-up sites meant for one-night stands tend to wear red in their profile pictures more often than women on sites that are slanted towards casual dating or serious relationships.

The most bizarre thing about this color effect on sexual attractiveness is that it's totally subconscious. Participants were not told the purpose of the study and none were able to guess what it was or that color had anything to do with it. Knowing that, go forth into the world and use your red leather pants responsibly.

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