Chris Williamson does another great interview with Chris von Rueden, an anthropologist and Associate Professor at the University of Richmond who researches how humans form status hierarchies and the evolution of human cooperation.
We take it for granted that there are leaders in modern society. Presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens. Hierarchies are baked into our world, but what did leadership look like in an ancestral environment and why did it evolve in the first place?
Expect to learn the two ways that primitive leaders could command respect from a group, why followership evolved at all in humans, why the Female Leadership Paradox exists, how leadership and hierarchies change as group size increases, whether leaders are altruistic or selfish and much more…
00:00 Intro
00:31 Evolutionary Importance of Leadership
05:14 Human Coordination with Non-Family Members
10:46 Similar Traits Between Humans & Animals
14:31 Does Gender Impact Leadership?
19:27 Regulating Leader/Follower Dynamics
27:47 Leadership Patterns from Non-Mammals
40:06 The Secrecy of Modern Leadership
46:37 Link Between Female Status & Reproductive Success
54:11 Where to Find Chris
