People who are mentally quick on their feet are seen as more charismatic by friends, a new study finds.

Professor Hippel said:

“Although we expected mental speed to predict charisma, we thought that it would be less important than IQ.

Instead, we found that how smart people were was less important than how quick they were.

So knowing the right answer to a tough question appears to be less important than being able to consider a large number of social responses in a brief window of time.”

Being mentally agile also allows people to consider different social responses on the spot.

This enables charismatic people to rule out inappropriate actions as well as pick out potentially witty responses.