This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: People in leadership positions tend to rate themselves as more risk-loving than those without leadership responsibilities—and a similar pattern emerges among chimpanzees: High-ranking individuals are perceived as more risk-taking than their lower-ranking peers. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Dresden University of Technology, and the University of Portsmouth, published in The Leadership Quarterly.
What makes the findings compelling is that the link between leadership and risk-taking emerges in both humans and chimpanzees. As both species share a common ancestor, this relationship may have deep evolutionary roots. The study thus provides new evidence that traits associated with leadership and social influence are not shaped exclusively by modern social structures but may already have played a role in early forms of social coexistence.
For the study, the research team analyzed data from more than 40,000 respondents in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a representative longitudinal study in Germany. The researchers compared the respondents' self-reported general risk-taking with their leadership status and income. The results showed that people with leadership responsibilities reported, on average, a higher risk-taking propensity than those without leadership roles.
Higher income was likewise associated with higher risk-taking. The relationship between leadership status and risk-taking did not differ across the sexes. To investigate whether a similar pattern emerged among our closest living relatives, the team also analyzed data from 86 chimpanzees at sanctuaries in Uganda and Kenya.
Longtime caregivers rated each animal's willingness to take risks. These ratings were compared with assessments of the chimpanzees' social status within their groups. Higher-ranking chimpanzees were rated as more risk-taking than lower-ranking animals.
"The results suggest that the link between leadership and risk-taking may have deep evolutionary roots. The parallels between human and chimpanzee leaders in terms of their willingness to take risks suggest that this trait may have evolved in both species as an adaptive strategy for coping with competition in social hierarchies, as well as with the demands of uncertain and often hostile environments," says lead author Lou Marie Haux, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The relationship was stronger in chimpanzees than in humans.
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