Editing Leadership (section)

===Biology and evolution of leadership===
[[Mark van Vugt]] and [[Anjana Ahuja]] in ''Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership'' present cases of leadership in non-human animals, from ants and bees to baboons and chimpanzees. They suggest that leadership has a long evolutionary history and that the same mechanisms underpinning leadership in humans appear in other social species, too.<ref>{{cite book|last1=van Vugt|first1=Mark|last2=Ahuja|first2=Anjana|year=2011|title=Naturally Selected: the Evolutionary Science of Leadership|publisher=HarperBusiness}}</ref> They also suggest that the evolutionary origins of leadership differ from those of dominance. In one study, van Vugt and his team looked at the relation between basal testosterone and leadership versus dominance. They found that testosterone correlates with dominance but not with leadership. This was replicated in a sample of managers in which there was no relation between hierarchical position and testosterone level.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Van der Meij | first1 = L. | last2 = Schaveling | first2 = J. | last3 = van Vugt | first3 = M. | year = 2016 | title = Basal testosterone, leadership and dominance: A field study and meta-analysis | journal = Psychoneuroendocrinology | volume = 72 | pages = 72–79 | doi = 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.06.005 | pmid = 27372205 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

[[Richard Wrangham]] and [[Dale Peterson]], in ''[[Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence]]'', present evidence that only humans and [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]]s, among all the animals living on Earth, share a similar tendency for a cluster of behaviors: violence, [[Territory (animal)|territoriality]], and competition for uniting behind the one chief male of the land.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Richard|last1=Wrangham|first2=Dale|last2=Peterson|year=1996|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/demonicmales.htm|title=Demonic Males. Apes and the Origins of Human Violence|publisher=Mariner Books}}</ref> This position is contentious.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Many animals apart from apes are territorial, compete, exhibit violence, and have a social structure controlled by a dominant male (lions, wolves, etc.), suggesting Wrangham and Peterson's evidence is not empirical. However, we must{{editorializing|date=August 2023}} examine other species as well, including elephants (which are matriarchal and follow an alpha female), meerkats (which are likewise matriarchal), sheep (which "follow" in some sense castrated [[wether (disambiguation)|bellwethers]]), and many others.

By comparison, [[bonobo]]s, the second-closest species-relatives of humans, do ''not'' unite behind the chief male of the land. Bonobos show deference to an alpha or top-ranking female that, with the support of her coalition of other females, can prove as strong as the strongest male. Thus, if leadership amounts to getting the greatest number of followers, then among the bonobos, a female almost always exerts the strongest and most effective leadership. (Incidentally, not all scientists agree on the allegedly peaceful nature of the bonobo or with its reputation as a "[[hippie]] chimp".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/30/070730fa_fact_parker|title=Swingers: Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are they?|magazine=The New Yorker|first=Ian|last=Parker|date=2007-07-23}}
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