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Van Vugt, M., Johnson, D.D.P., Kaiser, R.B., & O’Gorman, R. (2008). Evolution and the social psychology of leadership: The mismatch hypothesis. In D. R. Forsyth, G. R. Goethals, C. L. Hoyt, M. A. Genovese, & Cox, L. H. (Eds.), Leadership at the Crossroads (pp 267-282). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
This chapter argues that leadership consists of a constellation of adaptations for solving different coordination problems in human ancestral environments, most notably pertaining to group movement, social cohesion, and intergroup relations. Our evolved leadership psychology influences the way we think about and respond to leadership. This psychology is based on how leadership contributed to group survival in our evolutionary past—primarily, hunter-gatherer leadership in the context of a hostile and unpredictable environment rife with fierce tribal warfare. The difference between leadership in the modern world compared to our evolutionary past creates the potential for a mismatch because we naturally think about leadership in ways that are inconsistent with how it is practiced today. This chapter provides some evidence for this mismatch and explores the implications for leading the human animal today.
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