Autocratic leadership in social dilemmas: A threat to group stability

8 This paper investigated the impact of leadership style on the stability of small social dilemma groups. In two experiments, group 9 members were more likely to exit their group and take their resources elsewhere if they were supervised by an autocratic style leader 10 than by a democratic or laissez-faire style leader. The destabilizing influence of autocratic leadership is due to the procedural rather 11 than distributive aspects of this leadership style: More members exited their group under an autocratic style leader, relative to a 12 democratic style leader, regardless of whether or not they received favorable personal outcomes from the leader. Hence, autocratic 13 leadership is not a stable long-term solution to the problem of public goods in groups. 14 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.