Evolutionary preferences for physical formidability in leaders

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This research uses evolutionary theory to evaluate followers' preferences for physically formidable leaders and to identify conditions that stimulate those preferences. It employs a population-based survey experiment (N;::: 760), which offers the advantages to internal validity of experiments and external validity of a highly heterogeneous sample drawn from a nationally representative subject pool. The theoretical argument proffered here is followers tend to prefer leaders with greater physical formidability because of evolutionary adaptations derived from humans' violent ancestral environment. In this environment, individuals who allied with and ultimately followed physically powerful partners were more likely to acquire and retain important resources necessary for survival and reproduction because the presence of the physically powerful partner cued opponents to avoid a challenge for the resources or risk a costly confrontation. This argument suggests and the results indicate that threatening (war) and nonthreatening (peace, cooperation, and control) stimuli differentially motivate preferences for physically formidable leaders. In particular, the findings suggest threatening conditions lead to preferences for leaders with more powerful physical attributes, both anthropometric (i.e., weight, height, and body mass index) and perceptual (i.e., attributes of being "physically imposing or intimidating" and "physically strong"). Overall, this research offers a theoretical framework from which to understand this otherwise seemingly irrational phenomenon. Further, it advances the emerging but long-neglected investigation of biological effects on political behavior and has implications for a fundamental process in democratic society, leader selection.

Conceptual Development and Change Precede Adults’ Judgments About Powerful Appearance

“…While these observations are consistent with the possibility of innate capacities, the specific content and organization of the architecture supporting these judgements has been left unspecified (Over and Cook 2018;Terrizzi et al 2019). Moreover, researchers have tended to discuss the overall pattern of adults' judgments as if these were directly informative about innate psychological content (Lukaszewski et al 2016;Murray 2014;Sell et al 2009;Toscano et al 2014;Van Vugt and Grabo 2015). For example, Lukaszewski et al (2016) reason that the covariation of adults' judgements of physical strength and authority are indicative of evolved adaptations specifically designed to take cues of human strength as input and produce judgments about authority status as output.…”

“…Because these males were uniquely capable of carrying out important leadership activities, they were also more likely to obtain positions of privilege, status, and authority within local groups. Our modern-day judgments of power from expansive poses and masculine facial structure reflect the evolved psychological capacities shaped by the adaptive value that associations between strength and authority had during these ancestral periods (Lukaszewski et al 2016;Sell et al 2009Sell et al , 2010Van Vugt and Grabo 2015;Zebrowitz and Zhang 2011), even if the inferences generated by these adaptations strike us as irrelevant in today's society (Murray 2014;Murray and Schmitz 2011).…”

“…Another position argues that our intuitions about powerful appearance arise from an innate (i.e., unlearned) psychology (Lukaszewski et al 2016;Murray 2014;Sell et al 2009Sell et al , 2010Sell et al , 2012Toscano et al 2014). The logic and narrative underlying this perspective is adaptationist in nature: Over the course of our specie's evolutionary history, physically strong and formidable males were uniquely endowed to acquire necessary resources by threatening or inflicting physical costs on competitors.…”

“…Researchers investigating adults' judgments about powerful appearance have tended to argue for the existence of these evolved psychological capacities. Some have done so by appealing to the presence of analogous inferences in non-human primates, preliminary evidence for cross-cultural stability in adults' judgments about powerful appearance, the apparent speed and automaticity of adults' judgments, or some combination of these features (Murray 2014;Murray and Schmitz 2011;Sell et al 2009;Van Vugt 2006;Van Vugt and Grabo 2015). While these observations are consistent with the possibility of innate capacities, the specific content and organization of the architecture supporting these judgements has been left unspecified (Over and Cook 2018;Terrizzi et al 2019).…”

Conceptual development and change precede adults’ judgments about powerful appearance

“…Another position argues that our intuitions about powerful appearance arise from an innate (i.e., unlearned) psychology (Lukaszewski et al, 2016;Murray, 2014;Sell et al, 2009;Sell, Hone, & Pound, 2012;Toscano et al, 2014). The logic and narrative underlying this perspective is adaptationist in nature: Over the course of our specie's evolutionary history, physically strong and formidable males were uniquely endowed to acquire necessary resources by threatening or inflicting physical costs on competitors.…”