Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e36945. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036945. Epub 2012 May 23.
As nation-state leaders age they increasingly engage in inter-state militarized disputes yet in industrialized societies a steady decrease in testosterone associated with aging is observed--which suggests a decrease in dominance behavior. The current paper points out that from modern societies to Old World monkeys increasing both in age and social status encourages dominant strategies to maintain acquired rank. Moreover, it is argued this consistency has shaped an implicit prototype causing followers to associate older age with dominance leadership. It is shown that (i) faces of older leaders are preferred during intergroup conflict and (ii) morphing U.S. Presidential candidates to appear older or younger has an overriding effect on actual election outcomes. This indicates that democratic voting can be systematically adjusted by activating innate biases. These findings appear to create a new line of research regarding the biology of leadership and contextual cues of age.
随着民族国家领导人年龄的增长，他们越来越多地参与国家间的军事化争端，但在工业化社会中，人们观察到与年龄相关的睾丸激素水平稳步下降，这表明支配行为减少。本文指出，从现代社会到旧世界猴子，年龄和社会地位的增加都鼓励采用主导策略来维持已获得的等级。此外，有人认为，这种一致性塑造了一个隐含的原型，使追随者将年龄与支配领导力联系起来。研究表明：（i）在群体间冲突中，年长领导人的面孔更受欢迎；（ii）将美国总统候选人的形象变年轻或变老会对实际选举结果产生压倒性影响。这表明，民主投票可以通过激活内在偏见来进行有系统的调整。这些发现似乎为领导生物学和年龄的背景线索开辟了一条新的研究路线。
