Leadership and status

Sheng, X., Andrews, W. A., & van Vugt, M. (2026). The Psychology of Following: Conceptualizing and Validating the Fundamental FollowerNeeds Inventory. Journal of Applied Psychology.(link)   Abstract Humans possess an evolved followership psychology that enables them to identify and endorsedifferent types of leaders depending on situational demands. But what fundamental needs guidethese...

Lonati, S., & Van Vugt, M. (2023). Ecology, culture and leadership: Theoretical integration and review. The Leadership Quarterly, 101749.(link) Abstract Cultural and evolutionary explanations are often seen as rivals in the social sciences. It is therefore not surprising that these perspectives have also communicated little in leadership research so far. Yet, these two fields have many...

Van Vugt, M., & Smith, J. E. (2019). A dual model of leadership and hierarchy: Evolutionary synthesis., 23(11), 952-967.   Abstract From the popularity of authoritarian political leaders to the under-representation of women in boardrooms, leadership is an important theme in current human social affairs. Leadership is also a prominent research topic in the biological, social, and cognitive...

Van Vugt, M., & von Rueden, C. R. (2020). From genes to minds to cultures: Evolutionary approaches to leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 101404.pdf_button.png

Gerpott, F. H., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Voelpel, S. C., & van Vugt, M. (2019). It’s Not Just What Is Said but Also When It’s Said: A Temporal Account of Verbal Behaviors and Emergent Leadership in Self-Managed Teams. Academy of Management Journal, 62, 1-22.        

Van Vugt, M., & Smith, J. E. (2019). A Dual Model of Leadership and Hierarchy: Evolutionary Synthesis. Trends in cognitive sciences Download Abstract From the popularity of authoritarian political leaders to the under-representation of women in boardrooms, leadership is an important theme in current human social affairs. Leadership is also a prominent research topic in the biological, social,...

Knapen, J. E., Blaker, N. M., & Van Vugt, M. (2018). The Napoleon complex: When shorter men take more. Psychological Science, 1-11. DOI: 10.1177/0956797618760196 Download Abstract Inspired by an evolutionary psychological perspective on the Napoleon complex, we hypothesize that shorter males are more likely to show indirect aggression in resource competitions with taller males. Three studies...

Ronay, R., Oostrom, J. K., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & van Vugt, M. (2017). Pride before the fall: Overconfidence predicts escalation of public commitment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 13-22. Download Abstract In four studies we examined the effect of overconfidence on escalation of commitment in investment tasks. Study 1 (N=105) revealed a positive relationship between overconfidence...