Witty repartee is 'socially dazzling' and charismatic

In social situations, people reveal that a witty repartee is ‘socially dazzling’ and charismatic. Wit is defined as ‘inventive verbal humour’ and repartee is the art of conversation that is rapid and interesting. A new study in the Psychological Science journal showed that people are drawn to those who are proficient at witty repartee (The Atlantic, December 4, 2015, in the Health section). What exactly is it about witty repartee that is socially dazzling and charismatic?

Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands conducted a study in which they recruited groups of friends from a college campus. Each member of each group was required to rate each other on charisma and social skills. Each person was also given an intelligence assessment and several personality tests. To assess their mental speed, each person answered 30 common-knowledge questions as fast as they could, and a computerised ‘find the dot on the screen’ test as quickly as they could, and a test to identify pairs of patterns quickly. Mental speed is different (and not connected to) intelligence (IQ), general knowledge, or personality.

The results revealed that the people with fast mental speed were also the ones more likely to be rated highly charismatic by their friends. It was the speed of the conversation that others rated highly (not necessarily the content or substance!). People equated speed of speech with being dazzling and charismatic.

Interestingly, researchers noted that mental speed did not necessarily mean that people had high social skills. Also, mental speed did not mean that the people were smarter than others with slower mental speed. Rather, it just meant that people who could engage a high rate of mental speed – a witty repartee - had lots of charisma, not necessarily brains or social graces.

Researchers think mental speed enables people to judge situational demands rapidly, consider a wide repertoire of responses, hide inappropriate initial reactions by rapidly presenting a non-dominant response, and make time-sensitive funny associations. Further research might consider exactly how mental speed facilitates charismatic behaviour – because it seems, to the researchers, that having access to a wider number of social responses within an quick window of opportunity leads to the perception of a charismatic personality.

Image credit: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le dejeuner des canotiers – Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880)

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/quick-thinkers-seem-charismatic-even-if-theyre-not-that-smart/418629/