Since I have only ever known living in a large-scale society, I often forget how recent of a development they are. For most of human history, we have existed in small-scale societies and much of the world still does. So Von Ruden and Van Vugt did the not-so-obvious obvious thing to do if we want to understand modern large-scale leadership – analyze how the leadership of small-scale societies operates and see what parallels there are that might explain the development of the leadership we see in large-scale societies today.

It’s fascinating to see how much of the leadership we see in large-scale societies is a result of the traits that are valued in small-scale societies. For example, even though we pretty much never will come face to face with the President or expect the President to himself or herself lead the country into battle, we still prefer taller and more masculine leaders because those are the leaders that had greater success in small-scale societies. Or how in small-scale societies the average population is about 150 people and in successful large-scale leadership leaders within big companies are generally responsible for about 150 people. 

However, one aspect of large-scale leadership that did not develop from small-scale societies is the enormous amounts of money these large-scale leaders are paid and the extreme wealth inequality that creates. Leaders in small-scale societies were most certainly rewarded and held a higher social status in many ways, but that distinction did not come at the expense of others as it does in modern large-scale leadership. Yet, these exorbitant salaries may result from our natural desire to be better off relative to the people around us, as is present in small-scale societies. It’s still interesting to me that our new social differentiator is monetary wealth as that was not necessarily the case in small-scale societies.