The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Hello and welcome to the TCC Weekly – the Friday bulletin for people who know their Gemütlichkeit from their Gezelligheid.
This week we look, in our politics section, at narcissism and leadership. Is part of the problem that we, as electors, are drawn to big egos?
And finally, the shrinking violet that is Charlie’s Attic – this week, including polling on Ork-xit.
A little narcissism
We recently read this piece For PsyPost, on narcissism and leadership. It looks specifically at the personality trait termed ‘grandiose narcissism’, which describes need for admiration, self-importance and low empathy. The researchers found that people respond well to seeing this trait among their leaders – but only if it is administered in small quantities. Too much narcissism can repel people from a leader, but too little, can also, perhaps surprisingly, have the same effect.
“A small dose of narcissism makes persons in leadership roles more successful,” the report’s author said. “It is a matter of quantity not a matter of quality. A high dose of narcissism very often has detrimental effects on follower satisfaction and leaders’ performance. High modesty in leadership roles also does not seem to work. So, it’s the middle way which makes leaders successful and followers satisfied with their leaders.”
It is interesting to consider this in the specific field of political leadership. It would be fair to say that politicians are not an especially popular bunch at the moment, and individuals like Boris Johnson are often condemned as narcissists. Yet if, as the aforementioned study suggests, we are looking for a little vanity or arrogance in our representatives, is it any wonder that we end up with characters like Johnson at the helm? [Ed: And (she says provocatively) more men in leadership positions? And in typical TCC fashion, here’s some evidence to support the theory.]
This is not to let those behind party-gate and countless other recent scandals off the hook. But it’s to point out that the sweet spot we as electors seem to be looking for – brash enough to hold the attention of a room, yet humble enough to think about the greater good – is a surprisingly difficult mix to achieve.
And finally Charlie’s Attic, the part of the Weekly that holds a mirror up to the best and worst of the internet, each Friday:
Ponder whether WhatsApp community could be the answer to your comms needs.
Find out what the country thinks of the prospect of Ork-xit (an Orkney Exit).
Tell an air-conditioned Prague Tram apart from the rest.
