Charismatic leaders offer followers collective immortality in troubled times.

Evidence

Under such conditions, people’s allegiance may shift to an individual who exhibits an “unconflicted” personality—in the sense of appearing supremely bold and self-confident—and offers a grand vision that affords a renewed prospect of being a valuable part of something noble and enduring. Furthermore, Becker noted, this charismatic individual typically performs a striking initiatory act that shines a magnifying light on him, makes him seem larger than life, and enthralls followers who wish they had the courage to follow suit. Teeming with admiration and sensing a way to feel significant again, people join the cause of the seemingly larger-than-life leader as a revitalized basis of self-worth and meaning in life. Nationalism, and passionate affection for, deference toward, and identification with, charismatic leaders, therefore supplies what Rank aptly dubbed “collective immortality” to satisfy our aching need for heroic triumph over death. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 460

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the mechanism by which a leader’s “initiatory act” and “unconflicted personality” recruit followers as a revitalized basis of self-worth.
• XREF: This is Rank’s and Becker’s analysis, which the book builds on throughout; connects to Weber’s charismatic authority as discussed in the same chapter.

Related

• Charismatic dictatorships inverted Weber’s claim that heroic leaders save passive masses. (similarity 0.80)
• Crises that undermine cultural self-worth push people toward charismatic leaders. (similarity 0.80)
• Charisma is conferred on leaders by followers rather than held as a trait (similarity 0.79)