Vanessa Van EdwardsScience of People, Science Of People · Behavioral Researcher, Founder, Author, Harvard Instructor

This Is How You Become Charismatic

21 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:55

In this segment, Vanessa Van Edwards explains that charisma is not an innate, mysterious quality but a skill that can be learned. Citing research from Princeton University, she describes charisma as a precise blend of two traits—warmth (trust, likability, friendliness, openness) and competence (effectiveness, capability, efficiency). These two signals answer the fundamental questions people ask when meeting someone: “Can I trust you?” and “Can I rely on you?” Together, warmth and competence account for roughly 82% of first‑impression judgments in both social and professional interactions. Consequently, mastering charisma involves deliberately signaling both warmth and competence in every interaction.

Chapters

Charisma can be learned, it can be cultivated. And researchers out of Princeton University studied what is charisma, what makes us drawn to certain people, and they found that charisma is a perfect blend of two traits: warmth and competence. The reason we like highly charismatic people is because when you see them, when you hear from them, first they're signaling very high warmth— trust, likability, friendliness, openness— but at the very same time, they're also signaling competence. You can rely on me, I'm effective, I'm capable, I'm efficient. We love to be around people who quickly answer two questions. Can you trust me? And can you rely on me? This makes up 82% of our impressions of people. So when you ask, is it important? It is essential. When we are having an interaction, whether that's social or professional, we are 82% of how we treat you is based on your warmth signals and your competence signals. If we have innate competence, so we know our stuff, we know what we're doing, and innate trust, we're not up to no good. The answer is being able to clearly signal that warmth and competence.