Random Thoughts

[Angrboda]

New psychology research identifies a key factor behind support for harsh leaders

New research from Columbia Business School suggests that people’s personal worldviews shape how they judge antagonistic leaders. Across seven studies, researchers found that individuals who view the world as a competitive jungle are more likely to see antagonistic behavior as effective, even praiseworthy, in leaders. In contrast, those who believe the world is cooperative tend to view such leaders more negatively.

The authors behind the new study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, sought to better understand why people react so differently to leaders who behave in harsh, abrasive, or critical ways. The authors point to a viral incident involving a restaurant manager at an Olive Garden who issued a strict ultimatum to employees calling off work. Some saw the message as a sign of poor leadership, while others praised the manager’s tough stance as necessary.

“We were struck by how differently people react to the same leadership behavior—especially when it’s particularly mean or forceful or disagreeable,” explained the researchers, Christine Nguyen, a PhD student, and Daniel Ames, a social psychologist and professor of management.

“There have been signs from some corners in recent years of sympathy for more antagonistic bosses in the workplace. We’ve seen commentary that ‘assholery’ and ‘bossism’ is essential for getting things done and for overall success. And there has been some debate that we observed between a perspective that supports empathy and a perspective that supports ‘getting tough’ and ‘being a dick.'”

“We wondered why people might have such different views of how leaders should act. When people see a leader behaving aggressively, some people see the harshness as a sign of incompetence, while others see it as a case of savvy leadership. We suspected that divergence might be not only about the leaders, but also about the people evaluating them, and the lenses through which those people view the social world. That’s what led us to focus on worldview as a lens that might be driving these different evaluations. Past literature had largely considered the main effects of aggressive or affiliative behavior, but hadn’t considered how people’s worldviews might shape how they interpret the same behavior.”