Human and chimpanzee leaders share a taste for risk

People in leadership roles see themselves as bigger risk-takers than those without leadership responsibility, and the same pattern holds among our closest living relatives, according to new research involving the University of Portsmouth. 

The study, published in The Leadership Quarterly, found that high-ranking chimpanzees were rated as more willing to take risks than lower-ranking members of their group. Because the link appears in both species, the researchers suggest it may have deep evolutionary roots that predate modern human society. 

The international team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth and Dresden University of Technology, analysed data from more than 40,000 adults and 86 chimpanzees. 

For the human side of the study, the researchers used the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a long-running national survey. Between 2015 and 2020, participants reported each year whether they held a leadership position and rated their general willingness to take risks on a scale of 0 to 10. 

People who never held a leadership role during the six years averaged 4.96. Those who were leaders throughout averaged 6.2. Higher earners also rated themselves as bigger risk-takers. 

To see whether the same pattern exists in our closest relatives, the team studied all 86 chimpanzees living at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda and Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya. The animals, aged 2 to 40, were rated by long-serving caregivers. 

Caregivers scored each chimpanzee's willingness to take risks across situations including foraging, encountering snakes, competing for rank and meeting unfamiliar people and a domain-general assessment of risk. Separately, they ranked every animal in each group from the alpha male down. 

Chimpanzees in the top fifth of the hierarchy averaged 2.8 on the 0 to 4 risk scale, compared with 1.5 for those in the bottom fifth. 

Co-senior author Dr Esther Herrmann, from the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, said: "Chimpanzees provide a unique window into the evolutionary foundations of leadership. Our findings suggest that a willingness to take risks may have been linked to achieving and maintaining social status for millions of years. 

In both species, males scored higher than females for willingness to take risks. However, the connection between leadership and risk-taking was the same for men and women, and for male and female chimpanzees.

Lead author Dr Lou Marie Haux, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, said the findings point to a possible evolutionary origin, but cautioned: "Our findings establish a correlation, not a causal relationship. We don’t know for sure whether risk-taking people are more likely to reach leadership positions, or whether leadership roles make people more risk-taking." 

However, the long-term survey data lean towards the first explanation: a higher propensity for risk-taking is often apparent even before people assume leadership roles. Whether this is indeed the case is a question for further studies.

Dr Herrmann added: “Comparing these patterns across other great apes, including bonobos, will help us build a fuller picture of how the link between leadership and risk evolved."