Most people blindly follow a figure of authority due to an inbuilt culture of obedience, where positional power eclipses any sound judgement.
Authoritarians ensure most of the information never reaches people, by discrediting or cutting off the information sources.
They use incremental action by gradually increasing the demands that are made on others.
They ensure that people don’t have any personal responsibility for their actions. Example: Managers hiding behind company policy to justify unfairness at the workplace.
They use the power of fear by discrediting facts, scapegoating, polarization, and divide and rule tactics.
Many leadership qualities have been observed throughout history. Some were adopted by bad leaders while others were exhibited by good leaders. In either case, the characteristics of those in charge correlated to their ability to accomplish their goals. Just as importantly, those same traits determined how much - or how little - their followers looked up to them.
For weeks I had been researching what science has to say about the power of charisma. Why do some people so clearly have it and others don't? Why do we fall so easily under its influence? Charismatics can make us feel charmed and great about ourselves. They can inspire us to excel.
The German sociologist from the early 20th-century Max Weber wrote charisma is a quality that sets an individual “apart from ordinary men,” and causes others to treat him as “endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.”
Charismatic Leadership Tactics range from the use of metaphors and storytelling to nonverbal methods of communication like open posture and animated, representative gestures at key moments.
The more charismatic leadership tactics used, the more individuals will be seen as leader-like by others.
Why do people tend to do what others do, prefer what others prefer, and choose what others choose? Our study, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, shows that people tend to copy other people's choices, even when they know that those people did not make their choices freely, and when the decision does not reflect their own actual preferences.
People tend to conform to behaviors that are common among other people, even when they know that those people did not make their choices freely, and when the decision does not mirror their own desi...
The idea of the self-categorization theory is that people conform to the norms of certain social groups whenever they have a personal desire to feel like they belong.
It is irrelevant whether a norm reflects people's preference, as long as the behavior is associated with the group.