Measuring the Psychology of Followership: Evolutionary Origins, Ecological Cues, and the Fundamental Follower Needs Inventory

Humans possess an evolved followership psychology that enables them to identify and endorse different types of leaders depending on situational demands. Applying the evolutionary psychology perspective to followership, this dissertation starts with the functional hypothesis that follower needs and leadership have co-evolved to solve recurring coordination problems vital for survival and group success. By connecting this ultimate-level function with proximate-level mechanisms, this dissertation specifies that follower needs can be conceptualized as mechanisms of an evolved Input-Mechanisms-Output system. In the empirical chapters, this dissertation first examines two ecological factors: biased sex ratios (Chapter 2) and intergroup conflicts (Chapter 3). Both of these environmental cues are believed to activate perceptions of danger, which are then linked to followers’ need for protection from their leaders. However, measuring this need directly is difficult due to a lack of validated tools. The focus then shifts from “ecology” to “psychology” to explore the “black box” between inputs and outputs. Specifically, Chapter 4 aims to conceptualize and validate a more comprehensive inventory of fundamental follower needs, identifying six: protection, affiliation, status, vision, expertise, and fairness. Using this tool, Chapter 5 examines their potential antecedents and outcomes of leader evaluation. Chapter 2 explored whether an imbalanced sex ratio in society increases support for a strong leader, because people perceive such imbalances as threatening to themselves and society. This hypothesis was tested through five preregistered experimental studies (total N = 2249) and one archival study. The present dissertation manipulated the operational sex ratios within a fictitious country and measured both explicit ideal leader traits and implicit facial cues of leaders. The results showed that a male-biased sex ratio robustly increased the preference for a strong leader across all studies, but the effects of a female-biased sex ratio were smaller and not consistent. Overall, the studies enhance our understanding of the impact of an ecological factor, the sex ratio in society, on the support for political leadership. Chapter 3 investigated whether followers across the world upregulate their support for dominant leaders the more they perceive the present situation as conflict-ridden. Integrating experimental manipulations, validated psychological measures, and macro-level indicators, using a novel dataset of 5008 participants from 25 countries across different world regions, the results consistently supported the notion that intergroup conflict increases follower support for dominant leaders. These findings provide robust cross-cultural support for the existence of an adaptive, tribal followership psychology and offer important implications for understanding contemporary international relations. Chapter 4 conceptualized and developed the Fundamental Follower Needs Inventory (FFNI) to measure six core needs. This measure development research included a preliminary study and three validation studies (total N = 3,514). Studies 1 and 2 established content validity, internal consistency reliability, and the factor structure of the FFNI across three domains (general, political, and workplace), three countries (United States, United Kingdom, and China), and multiple time points. Study 3 demonstrated the FFNI’s convergent and discriminant validity, comparing with the related constructs such as need for leadership, fundamental social motives, basic personal values, and basic psychological needs satisfactions and frustrations. The FFNI offers leaders a framework to better understand the psychological needs of those they lead. Chapter 5 further examined the nomological network of FFNs, focusing on its antecedents, consequences, and both predictive and incremental validity. Specifically, this chapter investigates whether FFNs differ across leadership domains, countries, ages, and genders. Additionally, it explores the relationships between FFNs and implicit leadership theories as well as leadership effectiveness. The FFNI offers a new tool for researchers to explore how follower needs vary across different contexts and cultures, and how these needs influence leader endorsements and perceptions of leadership effectiveness.