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The Social Expert
aka: Silver Tongue

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Cersei Lannister: What do you know about warfare?
Tyrion Lannister: Nothing. But I know people. And I know our enemies hate each other almost as much as they hate us.
— Game of Thrones

The Social Expert is a character with people skills, especially when dealing with large groups of people. They can recognize the social patterns in a group, figure out people's motivations, and know who the person in charge is. The Social Expert can identify who's manipulatable, who's a manipulator, and who's neither. The Social Expert can make themself likable even to their enemies and is normally clever enough not to make very many of them.

Social expertise is an alignment-neutral skill, but it's practically a prerequisite for Manipulative Bastard, Magnificent Bastard, and The Chessmaster. Nearly every Decadent Court will have at least one, probably more. May also be The Charmer. On The Team, they are The Face. Protagonist Social Experts are Guile Heroes, supporting Social Experts end up as Mr. Exposition, and villainous ones are normally large-scale Manipulative Bastards. Contrast with No Social Skills. In role-playing games involving Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth, this is the Diplomacy option. With the rise of social media-focused stories, a Tech Bro who dabbles in social media may be portrayed as The Social Expert.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Aizen, the Big Bad of much of Bleach possesses this skill, manipulating the whole of Soul Society into enacting his plans to get an object hidden within Rukia for him.
  • Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto is about the teenage years of the Manipulative Bastard who inspired Niccolò Machiavelli to write The Prince. Even as a student, Cesare Borgia could charm anyone onto his side, and even at that age, he's using those skills — and a healthy dose of bribery — to win allies for his father Rodrigo ahead of the 1492 election that — spoiler alert — gets Rodrigo crowned as Pope Alexander VI. A lot of Cesare's plans seem to come from cynical self interest, but as original main character Angelo observes, they end up genuinely helping a lot of people even so. Cesare knows how to create the widest effect possible from a single move.
  • Kabru of Delicious in Dungeon has uncanny abilities to remember minor details about others. He uses it to put people at ease around him so he can better manipulate them.
  • Light Yagami from Death Note survives largely by manipulating those around him for information he needs or putting them in situations where they're likely to do what he wants. He'll even do this with himself, at one point removing his memory of the Death Note in a Memory Gambit to remove suspicion from himself.
  • Dr. STONE: Gen Asagiri was a mentalist before the collapse of civilization. He once wrote a psychology book and uses this knowledge to manipulate people. Tsukasa revived him to serve as a spy and scout, but he became a Double Agent after meeting Senku.
  • Izaya Orihara from Durarara!!, aside from being a complete Troll and Manipulative Bastard and claiming to "love humanity" (except for Shizuo), also performs his own social experiments. He searches for young girls online and makes suicide pacts with them before revealing it was just to see if they really would kill themselves. He has at least once staged a kidnapping/rescue just to see how someone would react, and this was because he was bored. When asked what Izaya studied in university, Narita answered he either studied psychology or anthropology. Also, according to Shizuo, Izaya is behind 99% of all the random conflicts in the city. Yes, Izaya is one hundred percent a dick.
  • Haikyuu!!: The main character Hinata is a nice version of this. Despite his ditzy nature, he's a pro when it comes to befriending people and finding the right words to cheer them up should they need it.
  • This is one of the main reasons for Reinhard von Lohengramm's success in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He knows which people he can trust, who is only using him for political gain, what people's motivations are, and how to play to people's desires and egos.
  • Akiyama from Liar Game makes heavy use of social psychology and his resulting predictions on how people will behave to change the course of the game.
  • Ukraine from Hetalia: Axis Powers is a Nice Girl version. She's the member of the Slavic corner with the best social skills and tends to get along fine with other nations while Russia and Belarus are... well, themselves.
  • Tobi aka Obito Uchiha from Naruto. He can accurately predict actions and motivations of virtually anyone he encounters. Also he can manipulate them, either by subtly corrupting their own goals or simply imposing his own beliefs on them. This is best seen in the existence of Akatsuki, its wildly differing members working together because they believed the organisation would further their own ends when in actuality, they were mere tools that Tobi used to achieve his plans. He also was able to use whole countries to his advantage, so he used the overall stability and suspicion between the countries to increase his own power by providing Akatsuki as the mercenaries carrying out orders and receive remuneration for work performed.
  • While Shiro is consistently the better technical player in No Game No Life's game-based battles, her brother Sora dominates anytime a social element is introduced. This is displayed in their first real battle, a chess game where the pieces have their own free will. Shiro's moves are perfect, but she stalls when the pawns won't sacrifice themselves just because she says so. Sora steps in at that point, addressing the chess pieces directly and delivering a Rousing Speech to motivate them to fight. Sora is so good at this, his opponent is convinced he's somehow using magic to cheat.
  • The Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School character Yukizome can adapt herself to suit the resident Ragtag Bunch of Misfits' personalities so quickly that they agree within a day to start attending class again. This is why Munakata (who's good at rhetoric but not personal interactions) assigns her spy work and one reason why he's so crushed when her betrayal is revealed. Yukizome was not only his (girl?)friend but his Living Emotional Crutch.
  • In When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Andou while having a severe chunibyou (aka acting like a protagonist of manga IRL) is also the best in the club at guessing the others' emotions and understanding what they want and how he should act to help them.
  • Nagisa in Assassination Classroom. Growing up with a mother prone to fits of anger, Nagisa learned to read when a person was becoming agitated and uses this information when he approaches his opponents.

    Comic Books 
  • Lex Luthor. His people skills allow him to both keep up his Villain with Good Publicity status as well as make sure his covert operations are in order. He is so good at this that he is one of the few people who can keep the Joker in check during a villain team-up.
  • Also from DC Comics is Dick Grayson, the first Robin and later Nightwing. It's been joked that his real superpower is charisma, often mediating fights amongst heroes and even having villains coming to his defense on occasion due to his sheer likeableness.
  • Tim Drake, the third Robin later Red Robin, gets along with people and never had any enemies in his civilian life even though his close friends did and he gains the affection of a number of villains. Coming on Dick's heels everyone rather expects him to be like Dick, but Tim is much more closed off and manipulative than his elder brother and is not the natural leader Dick is, preferring to work as a tactician and planner supporting someone he trusts.
  • Livewires had a character called "Social Butterfly", whose talents lay in social situations.
  • Storm Watch PHD had Gorgeous, a beautiful woman with a talent for manipulating men. She served as the team's profiler.
  • Wonder Woman is a diplomat and multilinguist in addition to being a heroic fighter, so she's one of the better superheroes for a wide variety of social situations.

     Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • This is Winston Deavor's main talent in Incredibles 2. His sister Evelyn makes all the gadgets that their company sells, while Winston's the one who knows how to market them. He puts this talent to good use in convincing the public to make superheroes legal again.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • His ability to read people well in order to manipulate them is one of the things that makes the version of the Joker in The Dark Knight so dangerous.
  • In The Hustler (1961), this is Bert Gordon's most important skill as a Manipulative Bastard; he can quickly size up someone and identify their innermost weaknesses. He's so good that even after losing $18,000 to Eddie Felton in a 25-hour marathon session of pool, Minnesota Fats cheerfully agrees to keep playing just because Bert identified him as a "loser" — and then proceeds to win it all back.
  • Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Thor: The Dark World, Frigga notes that Loki is very perceptive about others. In The Avengers, he quickly gauges his foes' personal weaknesses to set them against each other, and in Thor: Ragnarok, effortlessly climbs to the top of the Sakaaran social ladder and later becomes the leader of the gladiators he has just met through sheer charisma.

    Literature 
  • Discworld:
    • Moist von Lipwig is a con man extraordinaire whose talent lies in getting people to believe whatever he wants them to while thinking it was their own idea. He's managed on multiple occasions to turn a public spectacle to his advantage, turning the crowd to his favor and becoming a Spanner in the Works for whoever he's up against in the process.
    • Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Anhk-Morpork, has maintained control of the city by having a firm grasp of what motivates people and how to use that to his own ends. In Jingo, is revealed at the end he knew long before anyone else that the island Anhk-Morpork and the Klatchians were fighting over would soon sink into the ocean as suddenly as it rose. Upon learning this he signs a treaty that surrenders the island to Klatchians with significant concessions, which amount to nothing but making Klatch and his domestic foes look like fools when the inevitable happens.
    • This is Nanny Ogg's role among the witches of Lancre. She knows how to fit in just about any place and can insert herself into any crowd and know everyone's names and stories within minutes. It's one of the few areas of witchcraft where even Granny Weatherwax will defer to her expertise.
  • Jacky Faber of Bloody Jack learned the skills she needed to become one, mostly because she had to for the sake of survival.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Tyrion Lannister is a rare example of being this trope despite most people not actually finding him all that charming or likeable, partly because they assume Beauty Equals Goodness and he's an ugly dwarf, and partly because his Deadpan Snarker tendencies tend to irritate people.
    • None are quite so skilled or dangerous as Littlefinger, who set the War of Five Kings in motion with just a few carefully chosen words.
    • Sansa Stark is one in training. Tyrion notes that she has nearly perfect manners, always knows what to say in any social situation, and can make other people feel at ease around her. Once she's under the guardianship of Littlefinger she starts learning how to use this attribute for more manipulative political ends.
  • Harry Potter: By the time you realize the full breadth of Dumbledore's planning and manipulation in book seven, he looks like a full-on Magnificent Bastard.
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray has Lord Henry Wotton. Everything bad that happens during the story could be traced back to his words and the way he uses them.
  • Rosario Blancanales takes this role in the Heroes "R" Us group Able Team, and it's the reason for his nickname 'The Politician'.
  • Twilight: Jasper was such a social expert as a human, he became an Empath with emotion manipulation powers as a vampire.
  • In The Migax Cycle, Eeksa is an expert at figuring out people's motivations and how they'll react to certain situations. She uses this to manipulate others into aiding her resistance organization.
  • Lloyd Henreid in The Stand becomes the de facto face and diplomat of Las Vegas because of his surprisingly good people skills. Just the fact that he's still alive after traveling and working with psychos like Andrew "Poke" Freeman and Randall Flagg is proof.
  • Mr. Wickham in Pride and Prejudice initially seems like The Charmer, but it gradually becomes clear that he's actually this instead, since he very carefully manipulates people using his charm and how they're initially likely to respond to it. He's careful only to spread his tale of woe at the hands of Mr Darcy only in company where he can get away with it and to avoid situations where he can't, and after learning of the true story behind his history with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth realises that most of his interactions with her were based on flattering her conviction that she could understand someone's true character based on her first impressions.
  • Kuroki of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note gets this trope, word-by-word, as his epithet.
  • Karyl of The Dinosaur Lords is capable of turning a group of unwilling "volunteers" into staunch supporters of his cause with some social manipulation and playing on their emotion. He usually prefers this method to physical compulsion more typical of Paradise's armies.
  • Kide of Pavane In Pearl And Emerald is quite good at assessing people and steering conversations in whatever direction he desires.
  • The reason why Poirot is so wary of X is Curtain is because X has such a mastery over the human nature and their triggers, that he is able to utilise subtle hints and careful words to provoke someone into rashly committing a murder that they would otherwise have stopped.
  • Clorinda Cathcart, protagonist of The Comfortable Courtesan, owes her success as a courtesan to being this, and is addicted to gently and benevolently manipulating everyone around her to make their lives happier.
  • Virgil of The Divine Comedy is infamous for his persuasive tongue, which is partly why he's such an effective guide in both leading Dante deeper into Hell for his redemption and in shifting Dante's perspective on God's judgement of sin. He (nearly) always succeeds in talking others, be they demon, human, or shade, into doing his bidding.
  • The Scholomance: At one point, El sarcastically asks how Liesel has managed to make people think she's a nice person, and Lisel gives a speech about identifying the most popular people in every class, learning what they like, and giving them "a minimum of three relevant compliments a week. So long as they think you are agreeable, others will follow their lead."
  • Confederation leader John Kelly in Victoria is an archetypical example. While his fellow commander John Rumford has more raw charisma, and William Kraft is the master of bureaucratic infighting, Kelly understands group dynamics and informal social hierarchies, and how to influence them.
  • In The Poison Apples, it only takes Reena a few days to become one of the most popular girls not only in her year but the whole school, with the most popular senior guy crushing on her. She easily reads everyone in the room when hanging out with the cool kids and mentions that she has always been good at making the right friends to become popular.
  • Ivy Gamble of Magic for Liars can figure out what motivates a person and how to get them to do what she wants, feel what she wants them to feel, or tell her what she needs to know within minutes of talking to them.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Burn Notice has Michael Westen. This ability seems to be a prerequisite of a successful spy since they need to be able to spin even tall tales into believable ones long enough to work over the mark.
  • Chernobyl: Legasov may be the one who best understands what's going on, but he'd have gotten nowhere if it weren't for Shcherbina and his superpower of making the Soviet Government actually do things. Despite coming across as ignorant and unwilling to listen, Shcherbina demonstrates his social acuity by asking Legasov for a basic run-down of how a nuclear reactor works. Then he asks plant managers Bryukhanov and Fomin about the graphite in the rubble, comparing their behavior to Legasov's. While Legasov thought the danger was worth speaking out-of-turn in the Kremlin, Bryukhanov and Fomin try to downplay the accident, and then Bryukhanov immediately throws Fomin under the bus when Shcherbina asks a basic question about graphite in the rubble. This tells Shcherbina immediately who's trustworhthy and who isn't. Legasov requires Shcherbina's help navigating the Soviet system, coping with the KGB on their tails, and dealing with disillusioned workers, and by the end, Legasov says that while any scientist could have done his job, nobody could have done what Shcherbina did.
  • Littlefinger from Game of Thrones. In one monologue which no one will likely remember, he explains how this is his only way of getting back at the other nobles.
  • Grifter Sophie Deveraux (or whatever her real name may be) from Leverage. Her role on the team is to manipulate the mark by taking on an elaborate "role" that she plays, but often someone else needs to be sent in for one reason or another, and she'll coach them by reading the players and describing what she does and why. She can even profile someone's personality based on Hardison's background profile, seeing if they're driven, lazy, corrupt, or whatever based on the path of their professional career.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Halbrand is extremely affable and easily manages to make friends even in the most hostile situations. He can navigates through social situations and advises Galadriel to do the same instead of just antagonizing everyone around her.
  • Bones:
    • Special Agent Seeley Booth often relies on his 'gut' to solve crimes and is referred to as the 'people person' because of his natural intuitive insights and ability to read people well.
    • Dr. Lance Sweets as well. Sweets is a psychologist and profiler and does a lot of this for a living.
  • Ryuji Iwasaki from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.
  • Scorpion has Toby, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, as their team behaviorist.
  • Sherlock: John, definitely. This is in comparison to his friend.
  • Cassie Ainsworth in Skins takes this to prodigious levels.
  • White Collar: Neal Caffrey. It's part of what makes him good at conning people.
  • Doctor Who:
    • One of the main unique character quirks of the Second Doctor in Doctor Who. He can walk into any situation and immediately map out the social dynamics by observing their body language and interactions, approach whoever is almost certain to know more than everyone else, and then instantly figure out what they mean by the fact that they're lying about his questioning. "Power of the Daleks" is a spectacular example, where he effortlessly bluffs his way into the upper social circle of an Earth colony by pretending to be an examiner from Earth, and immediately makes a whole map of who's trying to overthrow who just by watching the politicians' facial expressions as they answer his trivial questions, while still recovering from temporary confusion caused by his first regeneration.
    • Leela. The Doctor is better at reading people than he pretends to be, but Leela's warrior training and unusual intelligence enables her to read and understand body language and facial nuance far better than he ever could. This is especially prominent in "The Robots of Death", which she spends a few steps ahead of him and a giant leap ahead of the people who actually are supposed to be solving the mystery the whole time.
  • Community: Jeff Winger. Doubles as an Amoral Attorney.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Describing Emu Hojo as sweet, kindhearted doctor would be pretty accurate if it didn't leave out the important part about him being a skilled manipulator with a knack for Batman Gambit. Getting his fellow riders to work together through tricking them or saving a patient by stroking his surgeon colleague's perfectionist ego are just the early examples.
  • Highlander: The Series: One of the main reasons that Methos has survived so long is that he is good at judging which other Immortals are dangerous to him and which Immortals are too honorable to attack someone without good reason, knowledge that is essential to surviving the Game. He is also is good at using that knowledge to manipulate both friends and enemies into doing what he wants.
    Methos: (talking to Keane, a Hero Antagonist who has a sword to his throat) Do you mind putting that down, or were you planning to use it?
    Keane: What makes you think I won’t?
    Methos: I'm a student of human nature.
    Later, after Keane leaves without getting any information from him or harming him in any way...
    Methos: I love good guys.
  • Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose, once a social media celebrity and socialite, eventually parlays these skills into an event planning business. She successfully organizes a Singles Week that benefits the town economically, including her brother's store and her father's motel. She also helps rebrand the motel from the Schitt's Creek Motel to the Rosebud Motel, making Stevie feel more like a part of the Rose family.
  • The Boys (2019):
    • Being this is Ashley Barrett's job as the official publicist of The Seven. She already lost her job once as Starlight revealing she had been sexually abused by another member created a PR nightmare, and once brought back as Director of Talent Relations, working closer to an asshole without empathy like Homelander ensures Ashley suffers and gets absolutely no respect. She still continues to handle their PR crisis, like Blue Hawk attacking audience members at a Black community center where he is instructed to give an apology for his Racial Profiling
    • There's also Stormfront, who has a strong social media presence and is as savvy as it gets with internet promotion, down to hiring five guys to constantly churn out memes...to hide that she's a complete sociopath and a literal Nazi who takes particular pleasure in killing minorities.
  • Gossip Girl (2021): Luna seems to know a lot of things in social media including trends or scandals. She uses this ability to learn for Julien about the past of Obie's new girlfriend and point out to Max his newfound feelings for Audrey and Aki in a therapeutic manner.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Exalted has a threefold division between social skills, mental skills, and physical skills. Any character with high social skills is a social expert. Among the Solars, members of the Zenith and Eclipse castes have the greatest talent in this area; other social specialists include Changing Moon Lunars, Midnight and Moonshadow Caste Abyssals, most Sidereals, and Malefactor and Fiend caste Infernals...although the precise form their supernatural social-fu takes varies by type.
  • The Dresden Files and other Fate variants go one step further, where you can fully engage in social combat, allowing you to browbeat your opponents into submission, with social skills.
  • Shadowrun
    • At least one character in the PC group needs to have good social skills to deal with the various NPCs the group will encounter. They should have high Charisma, good Etiquette skills, and possibly cyberware/bioware that enhances those qualities (e.g. tailored pheromones). Such a person may be called "The Face" of the group.
    • The crown jewel of social expertise is the infamous "Pornomancer" build (the Trope Namer for The Pornomancer, but not necessarily an example). A Social Adept with the right build could throw fifty dice at a social problem, while even the greatest grand masters of a skill would normally only get twenty-five at most.
  • This is the bard's job in Dungeons & Dragons, although they can also fight pretty well. In third edition, the infamous Diplomancer build allowed a character of this sort (often a bard) to, fairly rapidly, talk down most intelligent opponents from actively hostile into disinterested parties.
    • The College of Eloquence in 5E doubles down on this role by giving bards an automatic 10 or higher on Persuasion or Deception rolls. Assuming maxed out Charisma and expertise, when you pick up this subclass you will never get below a 19. When you reach maximum proficiency, you’ll never roll below a 27!
  • The Envoys in Starfinder fulfill a similar role, buffing allies and debuffing foes while plying a silver tongue in non-combat encounters.
  • The Boggans in Changeling: The Dreaming are keen observers of social interactions, and their inherently unobtrusive nature allows them to witness things that might otherwise remain hidden. This capacity allows a boggan to puzzle out a group’s social dynamics and pieces of information that he would find useful.
  • This is pretty much the job description of the Graces in Princess: The Hopeful. They are the Princesses specially charged with inspiring others and with leading and running societies.
  • In the Warhammer 40,000 book Vigilus Ablaze, Abaddon the Despoiler himself is revealed to be an expert negotiator. Abaddon wants to use an ancient super-weapon held by the Fallen Dark Angels on Vigilus to destroy the Imperial Fleet, but the Fallen are intentionally hiding the weapon so they can destroy the loyalist Dark Angels with it instead. When Abaddon meets with the Fallen to negotiate, the narration points out that Abaddon has previously cut deals with everything from the heretical primarchs, to daemons, to the Chaos Gods themselves. As such, even the normally very manipulative Fallen agree in short order to support Abaddon's plan to attack the Imperial Fleet.

    Theater 

    Video Games 
  • In Crying Suns, an officer with the Persuasion skill knows exactly what to say in any given situation. With a few carefully chosen words they can uncover a seemingly innocent person's true intentions or convince a hostile Scrapper to release their hostages, amongst other things.
  • In the interactive romance novel Moonrise, Rosario can size up any situation, read any room, and charm anyone out of their pants.
  • Master Li from Jade Empire.
  • Mike Thorton, the protagonist from Alpha Protocol, is described by his boss as someone who knows how to manipulate people to get what he wants, and this is reflected in the conversation system. The conversational stances that Mike takes may have nothing to do with what he feels and can drive people to friendship or enmity. according to his objectives.
  • Most characters in Renowned Explorers to a greater or lesser degree. Two of the three combat options involve either demoralizing your foe or convincing them to become your friend (the third involves physical attacks). Speaker characters are the best at social combat but all characters are skilled in at least one of the two social combat forms.
  • In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Skink-in-Tree's-Shade, Master Wizard of the Wolverine Hall (Sadrith Mora) Mages Guild Hall, is one of these as the Master Trainer in Speechcraft. He also sends the player on a mission to meet with an Ashlander Wise Woman so he can learn more about their culture. Furthermore, his branch of the Guild is in the heart of rival Great House Telvanni territory, making his social and political knowledge even more important.
  • Final Fantasy
    • In Final Fantasy XII, Vayne Solidor is so skilled at diplomacy and manipulation that he's able to win over a crowd of people whose country he conquered in a recent military conquest over the course of a single speech.
    • In Final Fantasy XIV, this is Thancred's role among the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. The Scions being mostly a group of scholars, mages, and general-purpose nerds, Thancred stands out all the more for his early appearance with a woman on each arm, chatting them up while keeping an ear out for nearby gossip. Much later on in the plot, new Scion G'raha Tia shows some signs of a less flirtatious and more leaderly variation, taking charge of crowds by calmly calling out orders and offering them a direction before they can begin to panic.
      • This is also the most notable and possibly only useful skill possessed by Emmanellain de Fortemps, especially in his early appearances: he's middling at best as a knight, and before a harsh reality check he's perpetually unmotivated to do actual hard work, but he does know almost all the interesting gossip in the city, which in the politically-fraught Ishgard is actually pretty valuable.
  • All Persona protagonists are this. They move to a new school in a town or city where they have very few, if any, preexisting relationships and over the course of less than a year manage to establish a close circle of friends and an extremely effective network of contacts. The protagonist of Persona 5 stands out in particular, managing to set up a network that includes (among others): A disgraced back-alley doctor that provides him with questionably legal medicine, an ex-yakuza who runs an airsoft shop that buys all the weird crap he hauls back from the Metaverse and sells the Phantom Thieves their gear, a washed-up politician that teaches him oration and debate, and an alcoholic journalist who feeds him information and writes favorable puff pieces about the Phantom Thieves. Note that he has it the worst compared to other previous protagonists because of his criminal record (that no one but him knows it's on false charges), so it's rather impressive that he can pull through.
  • In South Park: The Stick of Truth, the protagonist is noted to have a talent for making friends really quickly on Facebook. The ending reveals that the power to make tons of friends on any social media network is a special power of theirs that caused them and their family to be hunted down by the government. The sequel adds more to this by revealing that their own parents have such powers and were themselves experimented on by the government.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • Terezi in Homestuck is the most talented manipulator of the series thanks to being the Social Expert, contrasted with Vriska who relies on more direct Psychic Powers. Crowbar of The Felt is so good with people that he was able to win over Caliborn, the most unpleasant character in the story bar none, over the course of a single conversation.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • Elan is a story-telling expert because his role is the party bard. This makes him able to predict the actions and motivations of almost everyone involved. Runs In The Family as Elan and Nale's father, Tarquin is much the same. However, he is a much more experienced and intelligent example of this while also malicious. He uses this to be a shadow ruler alongside his adventurer buddies as part of a grand scheme to conquer an entire continent. Unfortunately, his adherence to storytelling tradition (and resulting hatred of subversion of conventions) along with egomania and Control Freak issues are what allow Elan and the Order to crush his plans.
    • Belkar is a more focused example. Multiple times he's shown he knows exactly what to say to someone, whether it be a mentally unstable paladin, a grieving friend, or a man who's just got a taste for violence. He isn't nice about it, but he can get them to do what he wants. An odd example, as Belkar has no social skills whatsoever, but is an expert on hurting people - it's up to his discretion whether that pain can provoke someone, break them down, or motivate them to keep going out of anger.
  • In Girl Genius Dr. Mettlemind stands out among the other Mad Scientists by being a Mad Social Scientist. He's got good insight on the dynamics of inter-Spark interactions and how they can resolve peacefully, and it was his ambitious plans involving "a thousand orphans, a hedge maze and enough cheese" that apparently got him exiled.
    • Queen Albia of England may also count. She mentions that even before her second breakthrough she was a master of the art of knowing people's hearts and motivations.

    Web Original 
  • Grandmaster of Theft's Cassidy Cain uses social grace as both herself and to assist as a Classy Cat-Burglar.
  • Many exist in the Whateley Universe. Ayla and Jadis are social expert protagonists. Many more are antagonists.
  • Jack Masterson in Chrono Hustle.
  • Sylvester in Twig learned to read people as a child out of necessity, and as a result is a skilled manipulator and predictor of others. His ability is massively bolstered by Wyvern, which lets him restructure his brain to give himself greater focus on certain areas, and he has pretty much permanently settled for this trope to round out his team's roster of skills. However, while he normally relishes being this, the story also explores the downsides; forming a trusting and equal relationship is extremely difficult when he has such an enormous advantage in emotional manipulation, even if both he and the other party want to make it work, and being an effortless Consummate Liar means that when trying to be genuinely honest he is either not believed or he says the wrong thing.
  • Worm has Tattletale and Jack Slash, who use social expertise in their supervillain work. Tattletale uses her Sherlock Scan power to build up profiles of individuals and home in on their psychological weak points. Jack Slash greatly enjoys gaining understanding of the minds of superpowered individuals and uses this understanding to get other villains vastly more powerful than he is to do what he says.
  • Being a stylish and charismatic crime boss, Roman Torchwick from RWBY is incredibly skilled at giving speeches, to the point that he can walk onto a stage in front of a mob of angry Faunus, use himself as an example of Humans Are the Real Monsters, and have them cheering for him after only two minutes. His nature makes him a valuable pawn for Cinder, who herself is forced to rely on An Offer You Can't Refuse in order to recruit people.
  • Felix in the Chorus trilogy arc of Red vs. Blue. He's charming, funny, and even without lying does a very convincing imitation of the merc with a heart of gold. It's especially notable with his partner, Locus, who is much more intimidating but has rather awful people skills.
  • Mahu: In "Frozen Flame" Mr. Storm always seeks to use those words which he thinks the other side wants to hear. This is a skill he slowly managed to develop in court, as King Seron had close to zero diplomatic skills.

    Western Animation 
  • Both Princess Azula and Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Though, when they betray each other, Azula wins out in the end, easily. Azula's actually an interesting case; she can accurately predict the movements, motivations, and operational methods of virtually anyone she encounters. This makes her incredibly dangerous on the field of battle or when she's attempting to manipulate someone. She can also be very charismatic at times (just look at her aforementioned takedown of Long Feng). But when it comes to everyday, basic social interaction, she fails. Completely. Ruling through fear and/or intimidation is pretty much the only thing in her social skill set; excellent for being the dictator of an entire nation, not so much when trying to mingle with people her own age. However, when her father briefly gives her control of the Fire Nation she quickly becomes paranoid and unstable, firing her servants for the mildest pretexts.
  • Trent Lane in Daria, despite a personality so laid back that his communiques are seldom and brief, is often able to identify moments of mounting tension between his sister Jane and her titular best friend. A few times throughout the series he tries to drop subtle (well, slightly subtle) hints that steer the girls towards peaceful resolution. Ironically, he seems pretty oblivious to Daria's long-standing crush on him up until she finally gets over it, at which point he gives her a quiet apology for letting her down when she was counting on him while subtly explaining exactly why they would never work as a couple — without one of both of them giving up some core facet of themselves to make the other happy.
  • Mildew in Dragons: Riders of Berk. He often uses his talent to rile up the villagers against the dragons.
  • Bill on Fangbone!. In contrast to Fangbone's "sword first, questions second" approach to strangers, Bill is more likely to try and engage with others by trying to talk to them and understand where they're coming from - a trait that has helped him and Fangbone defeat with a few of their opponents with minimal bloodshed as seen in episodes like "The Duck of Always", "The Bucket of Goblins", and "The Defeat of Glory". One of the last episodes even shows Bill bribing Venomous Drool's monsters with food to get them to support him and Fangbone instead of Drool.
  • Gravity Falls: This is one of the main differences between Dipper and Mabel. Dipper may be The Smart Guy, but he’s not incredibly social. Mabel is the exact opposite. While she’s not as intelligent as her brother, she understands people much better, and her outgoing nature makes it easy for her to befriend just about anyone that she meets.
  • Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): Casey is a skilled social media influencer who handles Moon Girl's PR and social media presence.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Rarity is definitely the biggest social expert of the Mane 6, being a fashion designer who travels in higher circles than the rest of the cast. This can occasionally blind her to simpler solutions that don't require complicated social graces, at which point Pinkie, who spends all her free time learning what her friends find fun, steps in.
    • Of the princesses who rule Equestria, Celestia is by far the more social one. She ruled the country alone for a thousand years until her sister Luna was redeemed, spending all day in diplomatic talks and making public appearances where she encouraged her subjects to improve. Luna, in a fit of pique, flippantly refers to this as "smiling and being adored by everypony." Luna finds the job much more difficult than expected when she has to take over for a day. Of course, Celestia finds Luna's job much more difficult than expected for the opposite reason.
    • On the other side of the fence is Cozy Glow, a sociopathic Enfant Terrible who has no magic powers whatsoever but manages to be a serious threat because she knows how to play others and believes in The Power of Friendship solely because the "power" part of it is literal in the MLP universe. In fact, the only reason this magicless pegasus seems to have been recruited alongside magical powerhouses like Lord Tirek, King Sombra, and Queen Chrysalis, is Grogar wants her understanding of teamwork and friendship to get the villains to work together.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: This, along with being a Master Actor, is what makes Double Trouble such a dangerous and effective spy, especially when combined with their Voluntary Shapeshifting abilities. They can easily infer the motivations of others and what they're likely to do next, and it never takes them long to figure out what makes them tick, or how to get under their skin. So not only can they look like anybody they want, they can impersonate them almost flawlessly, and have you believing they're your best friend, too. And once they've observed you closely for a little bit, they'll have such a firm grasp on your personality and motivations that they'll be able to deliver a brutal Breaking Speech effortlessly.
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: When faced with conflict, Yadina is an expert at making others understand a situation from someone else’s perspective. She has to, given that she wants to be the President when she grows up.

    Real Life 
  • Henry Kissinger. This trope is the whole reason he was both a successful diplomat and ladies' man.
  • Lyndon Johnson, and the (in)famous "Johnson Treatment". To quote the most important bits of the page:
    Lyndon Johnson had an innate, often stunning ability to read the personalities of others and immediately understand exactly how to ingratiate himself with them... Johnson would tailor his strategy differently for everybody he approached, and his success rate was astonishing.
  • People can end up becoming at least observant of social phenomenons if they've been exposed to volatile environments such as growing up in an abusive household (for example, a parent may exhibit signs of being in a bad mood and may lash out at their family if they do something, no matter how trivial it may be, to upset them). As a result, they become more cautious and strategic in how they interact with others in order to avoid negative social scenarios.
  • Any social skills coach is this by default.
  • Toyotomi Hideyoshi is very well known for his resourcefulness within the ranks of Oda and one of the more well-known uses of that is his silver tongue to bribe and sometimes blackmail or manipulate others and generally knowing where and when to delegate tasks, or more positively impress others to come to his side. The poem involving him amongst the unifiers fits well with the shiftiness that comes with his social skills: "If the cuckoo doesn't sing, make it sing."

Alternative Title(s): Silver Tongue

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