The concept “charisma” is generally applied in an unsystematic fashion, to noncomparable events, using post hoc analysis. An effort is made to construct a testable model of certain social influence processes included under the “charismatic” influence rubric. Charismatic social influence is viewed as an attribution process influenced by a number of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social system factors which limit and direct audience members' construction of perspectives. Various social system-environmental factors, message and message delivery characteristics, speaker features, and intra-audience processes are discussed as determinants of certain kinds of social influence and attributions of a speaker's relative greatness.