An Agent-Based Evolutionary Model of Leadership

Leadership is a robust human behaviour, which occurs rapidly in groups. It is argued that leadership provides a solution to coordination problems in groups and allows maximizing group benefits while minimizing group costs. In this paper a novel, agent-based model of leadership is presented, which is based on recently emerging literature on the human evolution. The model advances on the traditional research on leadership by identifying fitness-relevant situation dynamics that remained consistent throughout human evolution to select for specific leadership and follower ship characteristics. Incorporating the mechanics of evolution and the associated environmental pressures accounts for the innate tendencies of human leadership and follower ship, and consequently yields an increased level of model validity. The application of the model is illustrated by two voting examples and an empirical study, which provide an indication of the model validity.