In 2013 a hospital in Birmingham, UK, hired workers to help with a Christmas fundraising campaign. Some of the workers were given a charismatic induction speech, in which a professional actor told them they were doing “something special” and used his arms to make the point. Other workers were given a serviceable but less charismatic speech by the same man.
By the end, the workers who heard the charismatic speech had stuffed 17 per cent more envelopes than those who had heard the standard speech. Charisma had motivated them almost as much as the chance of a bonus, according to researchers at the universities of Lausanne, Milan and Zurich. Inspiration had rivalled compensation.
Such experiments are not conclusive, but other evidence surrounds us. Who wins elections, whose ideas spread, whose companies capture attention — the answer is often less rational than we think. The messenger often matters more than the message.