Adopting a cognitive and follower-centric approach to charismatic leadership, we hypothesized that followers show lower levels of cognitive effort, reflected in superficial processing of factually correct information when listening to and viewing a charismatic leader. We conducted two experiments, using a 2 (charismatic versus neutral) × 2 (female versus male leader) between-subjects design and videos of trained actors delivering a speech. We examined the effects of leader charisma on (1a) followers’ ability to detect factually false information, (1b) accuracy to remember information from the leader (study 1, N = 100), (2a) the persuasiveness of factual messages, (2b) followers’ prosocial behavior and (2c) the mediating effect of the leader’s persuasiveness on followers’ prosocial behavior (study 2, N = 140). We did not find support for the effect of leader charisma on detecting false information, the persuasiveness of messages, or increased prosocial behavior among followers. We found an effect of leader charisma on memory. Participants recognized fewer messages in the charismatic compared to the neutral leader conditions. Exploratory analyses provided mixed results for an interaction effect of leader charisma and sex on detecting and remembering false information. Our studies offer first insights into the cognitive outcomes of the charismatic signaling process.

采用认知和以追随者为中心的魅力型领导方法，我们假设追随者表现出较低水平的认知努力，反映在听取和观察魅力型领导时对事实正确信息的表面处理。我们进行了两项实验，使用 2（魅力与中性）×2（女性与男性领导者）受试者间设计和受过训练的演员发表演讲的视频。我们研究了领导者魅力对 (1a) 追随者检测虚假信息的能力，(1b) 记住来自领导者的信息的准确性的影响（研究 1，N = 100），（2a​​）事实信息的说服力，（2b）追随者的亲社会行为和（2c）领导者的说服力对追随者亲社会行为的中介作用（研究 2，N = 140 ）  。我们没有发现领导魅力对发现虚假信息、信息的说服力或追随者亲社会行为增加的影响的支持。我们发现了领导魅力对记忆的影响。与中立领导条件相比，参与者在魅力型领导条件下认识到的信息更少。探索性分析为领导者魅力和性别对检测和记住虚假信息的相互作用提供了混合结果。我们的研究提供了对魅力信号过程的认知结果的初步见解。