The conventional wisdom on charisma is that you either have it or you don't, and anyone who rehearses handshakes or conversation starters probably doesn't.
Research has been picking that idea apart for years. A 2024 study in the British Journal of Social Psychology, led by Martje Buss, tracked 22 behavioral cues in two group experiments, one in person and one online. Strangers worked on tasks together while being filmed, then rated one another on popularity.
The most popular people weren't the funniest or the best looking. They were the most extraverted, and more specifically, the most assertive and sociable. These two traits predicted better than anything else how a group of strangers would receive someone.
Much of this comes down to dominant behavior, which sounds aggressive but is closer to confident. Face to face, the cues that drove popularity were upright posture and dominant gestures, the physical signals of someone who is comfortable taking up space. Online, four channels of dominant behavior mattered: body language, voice (pace, volume, and tone), word choice, and general presence. In both settings, people who projected ease and engagement were rated as more popular.
Speed makes this matter more. Princeton psychologists Willis and Todorov found that people judge trustworthiness and attractiveness from a face in as little as 100 milliseconds. At 500 milliseconds, judgments of competence and likeability also lock in. More time doesn't change how people feel about you. It only makes them more sure they're right.
The face research shows how fast first impressions form. What the Buss study adds is that, among strangers, much of what separates the popular from the rest is behavior. Posture, gestures, the space someone takes up, and the pace, volume, and tone of their voice are not inborn traits. They can be learned, practiced, and adjusted.
The person who walks into a room and instantly commands attention isn't more interesting than anyone else there. They're simply broadcasting on a frequency the brain was built to notice first.