Abstract
Evolutionary accounts of the general factor of personality (GFP) state that high-GFP individuals tend to be selected as leaders more often. We directly tested this assumptionusing a simulated two-step (quasi-experimental) election campaign to decide whowould become a general student leader in a Chinese college. The results showed thatGFP scores, as assessed before the experiment, indeed could predict who becameleaders of their subgroups (in Step 1) and also who received the most votes to becomethe general leader (in Step 2). Additional analyses revealed that the lion share ofthe variance in election outcomes accounted for by personality (i.e., the Big Five) couldbe attributable to individual differences in the GFP. To our knowledge, this is the firstcontrolled social (quasi) experiment with a high ecological validity showing that theGFP is related to being able to successfully lobby for being elected as a leader. Thesefindings are in line with the evolutionary perspective on the GFP
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 81-93 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by the Chinese National Scholarship
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. American Psychological Association
Keywords
- General factor of personality
- Leadership
- Social effectiveness