Neuroscience of Leadership

Leadership

Currently, there is a lack of consensus about what leadership actually is. For example, cooperative leaders may lead by encouraging others to override self-interest in favor of group concerns. Other types of leaders, however, use social dominance to cement leadership status. Highly dominant leaders may be unpleasant, ambitious, and aggressive individuals who rule by force. This type of leadership is often seen in animal studies—the source of much of our current knowledge about leadership. Depending on species and social context, aggressive, forceful leaders may or may not lead effectively.

Although conceptions of leadership vary, many of the qualities and actions of leadership are readily recognizable. These may include personality factors such as charisma, dominance, flexibility, agreeability, and extraversion, and behaviors such as motivating, delegating, organizing, and planning. In today's complex world, leaders are also often intelligent, and capable of using their intelligence to predict outcomes and think critically. William Anderson and Cliff Summers suggest that leaders tend to react more quickly to social cues [Page 646]than do followers, and to terminate physiological and behavioral responses to social events more quickly as well.

Brain Structures and Leadership

Neural systems involved in social dominance are those related to emotion processing and social behavior. These include specific areas of the prefrontal cortex, sensory cortex, and limbic structures such as the amygdalae. R. Adolphs suggests a model for the roles these systems play in social behavior, beginning at the most basic level with the superior and inferior colliculi processing sensory information. More detailed processing occurs in the cortex, specifically the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. The amygdalae and other limbic structures bind emotions to the information. Finally, higher-level cortical areas interpret the emotions and information by fitting the data into a representation of the social world and one's role in it. He notes that these processes are not linear, but rather interactive and multidirectional.

Neurochemistry of Leadership

Primate and human studies have linked a number of hormones and neurotransmitters to leadership and social dominance. Most often cited are serotonin, testosterone, cortisol, and dopamine, which work to modulate mood, motivation, and aggression. Serotonin is among the most studied modulators of social dominance. In mammals, including primates, higher levels of serotonin seem to lead to greater social dominance. In one well-known study by M. J. Raleigh, M. T. McGuire, G. L. Brammer, D. B. Pollack, and A. Yuwiler, researchers removed the naturally dominant males from groups of vervet monkeys, then manipulated the serotonin levels in the remaining males. In all cases, the males whose serotonin levels increased moved into the now vacant dominant positions in their groups, in part by using social skills and affiliation to enlist support from females. Males whose serotonin levels decreased showed increased aggression and lowered social status.

...