2007 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Comparing American and Palestinian Perceptions of Charisma Using
Acoustic-Prosodic and Lexical Analysis: Presentation Powerpoint Poster

Hirschberg, Julia Bell; Biadsy, Fadi; Rosenberg, Andrew; Dakka, Wisam

Charisma, the ability to lead by virtue of personality alone, is difficult to define but relatively easy to identify. However, cultural factors clearly affect perceptions of charisma. In this paper we compare results from parallel perception studies investigating charismatic speech in Palestinian Arabic and American English. We examine acoustic/prosodic and lexical correlates of charisma ratings to determine how the two cultures differ with respect to their views of charismatic speech.