Eye-tracking technology finds group leader fast
New way of reading crowd behavior helps determine who has most dominant traits
Picking out an effective leader is no easy job, let alone doing it in less than 120 seconds. According to researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), though, a new understanding of social behavior may help us with this task and be more effective than any standard interview or election.
Researchers have determined two sets of behavior that can separate a leader from the crowd.
Recognizing different behaviors
The group’s work, which will be published in an upcoming Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , describes two sets of behavior that can accurately predict future leadership and catch people’s attention. The first is prestige; that is, the appearance of skill and competency. The other is dominance, including the ability to impose ideas on others, whether it’s through bullying, intimidation, or other means.
Notice anything missing from the behaviors listed above? How about likability? In a bit of surprise twist, this particular behavior, which has long been considered essential for modern-day leaders, does not consistently predict who among us possesses the greatest ability to lead.
“Our findings suggest there are really two ways to top the social ladder and gain leadership — impressing people with your skills or powering your way through old-fashioned dominance,” explains lead author Joey Cheng, a Ph.D. candidate in UBC’s Department of Psychology. “By measuring levels of influence and visual attention, we find that people defer to and readily spot the prestigious and dominant leaders.”
Using technology to measure social influence
The study featured two parts. First, 200 participants worked in small groups to complete a problem-solving task while being taped. At its conclusion, members rated their fellow participants’ dominance, prestige, and influence during the task, as well as their own. Scores were tallied and those considered to be more dominant than the rest, or otherwise considered to have more prestige than other participants, were determined to have greater influence on the group as a whole and thus perceived most influential.
In the second part of the study, 60 additional participants watched 120 seconds’ worth of short videos of the initial group interactions while wearing eye-tracking devices. These participants were instructed to specifically look for and train their eyes on individuals in the clips that appeared more dominant or prestigious than the rest, as this indicated who they felt had the highest level of influence within the group.
Incredibly, both groups matched up in picking out the same leaders.
What can we learn from this?
According to the researchers, modern-day dominant behavior comes from resource and power battles from our evolutionary past. It also might explain why we see so many more aggressive leaders in business and politics nowadays, from Donald Trump to Senator John McCain.
The viability of prestige as a means for attaining status, meanwhile, has increased with the rise of meritocracy in society. This might explain why there is such focus nowadays on attaining one’s college degree, master’s degree, or doctoral certification. ■
Story via: ubc.ca
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