Abstract
Nowadays, to the detriment of democratic leaders, the emergence of authoritarian leaders has drastically modified the political sphere. This project aims to shed light on this issue by analysing how the perceived effectiveness of democratic and authoritarian political leaders are shaped by the common dimensions of social perception, such as competence/warmth, masculinity/femininity, and human uniqueness/human nature. Accordingly, three experimental studies were conducted. In Study 1 (<em>n</em> = 1001), we revealed that democratic leaders are perceived as more competent, warm, feminine and human. In Study 2 (<em>n</em> = 548) and Study 3 (<em>n</em> = 622), we investigated whether these dimensions of perception mediated the relationship between leaders and their perceived effectiveness. The results revealed that democratic leaders are perceived as effective in cooperative scenarios due to their competence, femininity, and human nature. Alternatively, democratic leaders are preferred in ambiguous contexts due to their competence and cognitive flexibility, that is, human nature. In contrast, authoritarian leaders are perceived as effective in competitive scenarios because of their masculinity. In Study 3, we manipulated the (in)stability of socio-economic contexts. The results revealed that democratic and authoritarian leaders are perceived as more competent, warm, human and more effective in socio-economic contexts that are stable compared with those that are unstable. The implications of the results regarding the emergence of authoritarian leaders are discussed.
Highlights
Nowadays, to the detriment of democratic leaders, the emergence of authoritarian leaders has drastically modified the political sphere
Gartzia and van Knippenberg (2016) argued that, in terms of cooperation, communal leaders are more effective than agentic leaders
We hypothesized that democratic leaders will be perceived as more effective than authoritarian leaders during cooperative conflicts, such as a humanitarian crisis (H2)
Summary
To the detriment of democratic leaders, the emergence of authoritarian leaders has drastically modified the political sphere This project aims to shed light on this issue by analysing how the perceived effectiveness of democratic and authoritarian political leaders are shaped by the common dimensions of social perception, such as competence/warmth, masculinity/femininity, and human uniqueness/human nature. The literature on political cognition pointed out that impressions, stereotypes and beliefs about political leaders have an impact on perceived leader effectiveness and voting behaviour They can be key elements in understanding the emergence of populist and authoritarian leaders and discourses (Fiske, 2019). Sainz et al: Perception of Democratic and Authoritarian Leaders seems to be especially relevant to understanding leadership style of political leaders
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