I agree with your claims of fact, but I don’t think you’re thinking through the consequences enough. Charisma is a force multiplier, a.k.a. a symmetric weapon. However, there are a couple traits about it that justify the suspicion it gets.
It is particularly good at tasks which involve changing the minds of others. This is also the realm where the most effective known* asymmetric weapon, logical argument, is most effective. Directly counteracting the best known asymmetric weapon makes it unusually dangerous.
It is mostly involuntary. Charismatic people generally don’t have volitional control over whether they’re exercising it. (True sociopaths are a notable exception, IIUC.) They can dial it back, but charisma is a habit of mind more than an explicit skill, so a very charismatic person trying not to push is probably still exerting more charisma than an uncharismatic one trying their best to be convincing. E.G. Eliezer trying not to trade on his reputation would probably still accidentally pull pretty hard on the audience of a debate, substantially more than I could even trying my hardest.
It’s a serious trap for the elephant in the brain. Charisma is directly playing on the level of the mind that is optimized for surviving personal drama in a tribe of hunter-gatherers. This is what people are talking about when they talk about the “reality distortion field” that Steve Jobs, Michael Vassar, and any number of other charismatic people exude. Sufficiently charismatic people can’t convince you that you’re a yellow-footed rock wallaby; I think the better analogy is to the Asch conformity experiment; a very charismatic person counts as several people. And they won’t necessarily even realize that they’re doing it, either; the first person they convince is usually themself.
These make charisma pretty hazardous to the goal of group rationality, since it can easily shove a group’s collective beliefs towards a viewpoint which isn’t truth-tracking and interfere with attempts to get them back on track. Which substantively validates the outsider/nerd view of charisma as inherently suspect.
I agree with your claims of fact, but I don’t think you’re thinking through the consequences enough. Charisma is a force multiplier, a.k.a. a symmetric weapon. However, there are a couple traits about it that justify the suspicion it gets.
It is particularly good at tasks which involve changing the minds of others. This is also the realm where the most effective known* asymmetric weapon, logical argument, is most effective. Directly counteracting the best known asymmetric weapon makes it unusually dangerous.
It is mostly involuntary. Charismatic people generally don’t have volitional control over whether they’re exercising it. (True sociopaths are a notable exception, IIUC.) They can dial it back, but charisma is a habit of mind more than an explicit skill, so a very charismatic person trying not to push is probably still exerting more charisma than an uncharismatic one trying their best to be convincing. E.G. Eliezer trying not to trade on his reputation would probably still accidentally pull pretty hard on the audience of a debate, substantially more than I could even trying my hardest.
It’s a serious trap for the elephant in the brain. Charisma is directly playing on the level of the mind that is optimized for surviving personal drama in a tribe of hunter-gatherers. This is what people are talking about when they talk about the “reality distortion field” that Steve Jobs, Michael Vassar, and any number of other charismatic people exude. Sufficiently charismatic people can’t convince you that you’re a yellow-footed rock wallaby; I think the better analogy is to the Asch conformity experiment; a very charismatic person counts as several people. And they won’t necessarily even realize that they’re doing it, either; the first person they convince is usually themself.
These make charisma pretty hazardous to the goal of group rationality, since it can easily shove a group’s collective beliefs towards a viewpoint which isn’t truth-tracking and interfere with attempts to get them back on track. Which substantively validates the outsider/nerd view of charisma as inherently suspect.
*[Citation Needed], I know