Charisma goes viral: Péter Magyar and the digital construction of political authority

Abstract

How is charismatic authority constructed and rewarded in digital political communication? This article develops a multidimensional framework for analysing digital charismatic signalling and applies it to Péter Magyar’s rapid political rise in Hungary. Drawing on leadership studies, social psychology and political communication, we conceptualise charisma as a relational, signalling-based process enacted through exceptional personal qualities, community construction, visionary appeals and collective challenges. Using quantitative content analysis of 486 Facebook posts published between February and June 2024, we examine how specific signals predict likes, love reactions, shares and comments. The findings show that digital charisma does not operate as a uniform engagement engine. Relational, emotional and identity-based cues generate the strongest affective engagement, especially similarity to followers, cultural-historical references, emotional mobilisation and normative-symbolic signals. Competence-oriented cues and visionary appeals have limited independent effects, while blame attribution stimulates comments. The article advances a fine-grained account of digitally mediated charismatic followership.