Leadership in Mammalian Societies: Emergence, Distribution, Power, and Payoff

Leadership is an active research area in both biological and social sciences, but there has been limited synthesis within or across these areas; evolutionary theory can assist with such synthesis, but additional elements are needed for a robust comparative framework. Variation in leadership can be measured in multiple dimensions, including emergence (how does one become a leader?), distribution (how widely shared is leadership?), power (how much power do leaders wield over followers?), relative benefit (do leaders gain more or less than followers?), and generality (how likely are leaders in one domain, such as movement or conflict resolution, to lead in other domains?). A comparative framework based on these dimensions can reveal commonalities and differences among leaders in mammalian societies, including human societies. Leadership is an active area of research in both the biological and social sciences. This review provides a transdisciplinary synthesis of biological and social-science views of leadership from an evolutionary perspective, and examines patterns of leadership in a set of small-scale human and non-human mammalian societies. We review empirical and theoretical work on leadership in four domains: movement, food acquisition, within-group conflict mediation, and between-group interactions. We categorize patterns of variation in leadership in five dimensions: distribution (across individuals), emergence (achieved versus inherited), power, relative payoff to leadership, and generality (across domains). We find that human leadership exhibits commonalities with and differences from the broader mammalian pattern, raising interesting theoretical and empirical issues. Leadership is an active area of research in both the biological and social sciences. This review provides a transdisciplinary synthesis of biological and social-science views of leadership from an evolutionary perspective, and examines patterns of leadership in a set of small-scale human and non-human mammalian societies. We review empirical and theoretical work on leadership in four domains: movement, food acquisition, within-group conflict mediation, and between-group interactions. We categorize patterns of variation in leadership in five dimensions: distribution (across individuals), emergence (achieved versus inherited), power, relative payoff to leadership, and generality (across domains). We find that human leadership exhibits commonalities with and differences from the broader mammalian pattern, raising interesting theoretical and empirical issues. General Terms control of the behavior of others through threats or attacks. any situation in which multiple individuals would all benefit from a particular action, but difficulties of coordination or of ensuring fair contribution to the costs of the action create obstacles; also known as a ‘social dilemma’. situations in which individual success requires collective action to achieve a goal. These range from contexts of pure coordination, where individuals have the same preference or fitness ranking across outcomes, to cases where individuals have different rankings but still achieve higher payoffs by coordinating on one choice. ability to win dyadic agonistic interactions (e.g., contests or unsolicited appeasements), with outcomes determining priority of access to resources or mating. a society in which the individuals of the same age-sex category have equal access to and control over resources and/or other individuals within the group (in contrast to a stratified/despotic society). non-random differential effect on group behavior of conspecifics through actions evolved or intended to elicit this effect (a glossary of leadership types is given below) the ability of leaders to motivate followers to behave in ways they would otherwise not do, often but not necessarily through coercion. influence or deference that is freely granted (i.e., not generated by the use of threat or force, in contrast to dominance). multiple group members decide on an outcome (via consensus or quorum-sensing), in contrast to unshared decision-making. a human society consisting of one or a few local communities (several hundred to a few thousand members in total); these tend to be egalitarian, but with some notable exceptions. one in which segments have differential access to and/or control over resources; also known as a despotic society, or a society structured by a dominance hierarchy. one or a very few group members make decisions for the group. Types of Leadership leaderless group; in the human case, one without institutionalized leadership. determined by an individual's abilities, performance or effort (in contrast to ascribed status). assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in life (e.g., through maternal rank inheritance based on maternal interventions or bequeathal of resources down a lineage). determined by the specific traits possessed by a leader (rank, age, tenure, sex, physiological state) when that individual assumes role of leader or follower. when a leader has tacit or explicit group consent to act without seeking consensus on each decisions (thus intermediate between pure consensus-based decisions and despotism). consistent leadership by a powerful individual or small set of individuals; also termed ‘unshared’ or ‘personal’ leadership. different individuals lead group action on different occasions, for a given domain, due to fluctuations in motivation, knowledge, or a turn-taking convention; also known as shared leadership. when an individual's leadership is limited to a specific domain (contrasting with domain-general leadership, as in generalized dominance). leadership presumed on the basis of others following (e.g., one individual initiates movement and others follow). consists of durable positions (regardless of length of tenure of individuals occupying those positions), in contrast to situational leadership. leadership that arises opportunistically and occurs only in specific situations of short duration; contrasting with institutionalized leadership. the act of freely proffering services to a group (e.g., agreeing to assume a costly leadership role).

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