Reputation concern influences perceived leadership

Objective: Having a positive reputation generally yields more social benefits than a negative one. While individuals typically strive for a good reputation, their concern for it varies. This pre-registered study investigates how reputation concerns influence others' social evaluations of a protagonist, particularly in the context of leadership. In this study, participants (N = 363) read profiles of individuals exhibiting either high or low concern for their reputation and rated their suitability for leadership in both competitive and cooperative settings.

Results: Results indicated that in intergroup competitive situations, individuals with low reputation concerns were more likely to be endorsed as leaders compared to those with high reputation concerns (Leadership endorsement scores: M_low = 4.00, M_high = 3.23, p < .001, η_p² = 0.09). In contrast, in intergroup cooperative situations, individuals with high reputation concerns were more likely to be endorsed as leaders (M_low = 3.30, M_high = 3.76, p < .001, η_p² = 0.04). This study extends previous research on the factors influencing leadership endorsement and provides valuable insights into how individuals are endorsed as leaders across different contexts.