An Evolutionary Exploration of Implicit and Explicit Dominance Cues in Leadership: Brexit, Gender Stereotypes and National Collective Narcissism
Abstract
This study investigated the preference for implicit cues of dominance and gender typicality
by manipulating the masculinity of potential candidates faces and asking participants to rate
these faces for leadership ability. Previous research in this domain has found that ‘No’ voters
in the Scottish Independence Referendum were more likely to prefer masculinised male faces
(Knowles & Little, in review). Thus, these results suggest a link between facial preferences
and voting behaviour. Moreover, preliminary research has shown a correlation that illustrates
people who are collectively narcissistic were more likely to vote Leave in the Brexit
Referendum (Golec de Zavala, 2018). Expanding on this research, the current study will use a
repeated measures design to explore an individual’s preference for implicit and explicit cues
of dominance in both male and female faces. Exploring perceived leadership ability and
determining whether there is any difference between those who voted ‘In’ or ‘Out’ in the
referendum on EU membership (‘Brexit’). This study explores preferences for explicit
dominance cues, by asking participants to rate quotations and different prototypical
leadership qualities, which reflect dominance or diplomacy. Additionally, examine individual
differences which may moderate these effects, including National Collective Narcissism
(NCN), Need for Cognition (NFC), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and other
personality characteristics. The results of this study demonstrated a preference for explicit
cues of dominance. We found that NCN was higher in those who voted leave and that NCN
moderated differences in personality construct between voters in some cases.