Life-History Calibration of Social Hierarchies: Childhood Adversity Predicts Leadership Preference through Relational Social Investment

One way to understand leadership styles in human society is through the lens of followers’ preferences. From a life-history perspective, followers from different backgrounds might develop different psychological traits and social connections that are compatible with the type of future environments that they would expect from childhood experiences. This psychosocial life-history profile of the follower, representing different domains of fitness investment, predisposes them to preferences for dominance-style or prestige-style leadership. The current research tested multiple aspects of followers’ life-history profile as potential mediators between childhood adversity and leadership preferences in hypothetical scenarios in two studies using multiple-site samples in Mainland China. Study 1 (N = 898) focused on childhood economic conditions (controlling for current economic conditions), whereas Study 2 (1,233) examined childhood resource insecurity and negative life events as independent indicators of childhood adversity and controlled for social dominance orientation and power distance orientation. Results showed that the association between childhood adversity and preferences for dominant (rather than prestigious) leaders was mediated by relational social investment, but not intellectual development investment, long-term reproductive investment, or generalized social investment.

理解人类社会中的领导风格，可从追随者的偏好视角切入。从生命史理论视角来看，成长背景各异的追随者会基于童年经历所预期的未来环境类型，形成与之适配的不同心理特质与社会联结。追随者的这类社会心理生命史特征代表了不同维度的适合度投资，会使其倾向于偏好支配型或威望型领导风格。本研究通过两项针对中国大陆多站点样本的研究，在假想情境下检验了追随者生命史特征的多个维度，将其作为童年逆境与领导风格偏好之间潜在的中介变量。研究1（N=898）聚焦童年经济状况（同时控制当前经济状况）；而研究2（N=1233）则将童年资源匮乏与负性生活事件作为童年逆境的独立测量指标，并控制了社会支配倾向与权力距离取向这两个变量。研究结果显示，童年逆境与对支配型（而非威望型）领导者的偏好之间的关联，是通过关系型社会投资来中介的，而非智力发展投资、长期繁殖投资或泛化社会投资。