A cost of leadership in human groups

Piyapong, Chantima; Morrell, Lesley J.; Croft, Darren P.; Dyer, John R. G.; Ioannou, Christos C.; Krause, Jens

Abstract

Group living is the result of a dynamic trade-off between associated costs and benefits. However, these costs and benefits are not necessarily distributed equally across different spatial positions of groups which may result in different fitness returns for individuals occupying different positions in groups. Here we consider whether leadership of a group during a navigation task in humans may have a specific cost associated with it. Pairs of students performed a counting task whilst walking through two obstacle courses, once as leader and once as follower. We found that leaders made significantly more errors in the counting task than followers suggesting that there is an attention cost associated with leadership/navigation behaviour.

Citation

Piyapong, C., Morrell, L. J., Croft, D. P., Dyer, J. R. G., Ioannou, C. C., & Krause, J. (2007). A cost of leadership in human groups. Ethology, 113(9), 821-824. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2007.01382.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 5, 2007
• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2007
• Publication Date: 2007-09
• Journal: ETHOLOGY
• Print ISSN: 0179-1613
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 113
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 821-824
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2007.01382.x
• Keywords: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/409399
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2007.01382.x