People who endure dysfunctional family conflict during adolescence tend to prefer domineering, selfish, and conceited leaders as adults, according to new research published in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. The findings suggest that tyrannical leaders in the business world and in politics can find success because they embody some people’s implicit notion of ideal leadership.
“I’ve always been fascinated by social cognition, which is how our thoughts guide our actions and preferences,” said study author Dayna Herbert Walker, an assistant professor at San Francisco State University.
“I’m also curious about the ways our upbringing shapes adult workplace behavior. Implicit leadership theories (ILTs) fit right into that intersection because ILTs are assumptions we have about leadership, and prior research suggests ILTs form very early in life. I wanted to explore specific factors in a person’s upbringing that shape the kinds of leaders they prefer.”
For their study, the researchers analyzed data from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, a long-term study that began tracking families in 1979. Surveys were administered to 130 participants and their parents from ages 1 to 17. Follow-up surveys were administered to the participants at age 29 and 38.
In 1996, when participants were 17 years old, the survey asked participants about their family dynamics, such as whether people at home raised their voices, criticized one another or were physically violent. Twenty years later, those respondents were asked to measure on a scale whether 10 qualities researchers defined as tyrannical (domineering, pushy, dominant, manipulative, power-hungry, conceited, loud, selfish, obnoxious and demanding) were characteristics present in their image of an ideal leader.
“It’s critical that we asked about ideal leadership and not just leadership in general,” Herbert Walker said, “because we really wanted to get at a person’s favored leadership image, the characteristics they ideally want to see in their leaders.”
The researchers found that adolescents raised in families with a high level of dysfunctional conflict were more likely to endorse tyrannical traits as ideal leader characteristics in adulthood. A person who experienced high family conflict in adolescence was 20% more likely than chance to prefer a tyrannical model of leadership, controlling for other known factors that shape leadership preferences like sex and personality.
“Leadership lies in the eyes of followers much more than we realize. Although it might seem paradoxical, some followers prefer leaders who, on the surface, seem to undermine followers’ best interests (i.e., leaders who are domineering, pushy, dominant, manipulative, power-hungry, conceited, loud, selfish, obnoxious, and demanding),” Herbert Walker told PsyPost.
Surprisingly, the researchers also found that having an egalitarian father — rather than a traditionally dominant father — strengthened the relationship between family conflict and the endorsement of tyrannical leadership.
“Perhaps when parents violate gender role expectations, the contradiction itself creates conflict,” Herbert Walker and her colleagues wrote in the study. “Mothers and fathers may implicitly expect more agentic or communal behavior from their spouse (particularly in the 1980s), depending on their spouse’s sex. Unfulfilled expectations may foster frustration, anger, or disappointment, leading to more conflict.”
But the study — like all research — includes some caveats.
“This is a purely correlational study design. So, while we have longitudinal findings spanning more than 20 years, we cannot make any causal claims. This means that just because a person experiences conflict in adolescence doesn’t necessarily mean they will prefer tyrannical leaders in adulthood,” Herbert Walker explained.
“We still don’t know exactly how these preferences play out in the workplace, so we need follow up studies that link employees’ upbringing, ILTs, and interactions with managers.”
The study, “Who Might Support a Tyrant? An Exploration of Links Between Adolescent Family Conflict and Endorsement of Tyrannical Implicit Leadership Theories“, was authored by Dayna O. H. Walker, Rebecca J. Reichard, Ronald E. Riggio, and Tiffany Keller Hansbrough.