As any team building session will tell you, in any group there are leaders and there are followers.
The leaders pioneer the way whilst the followers tag along behind. However, a new study has found that in stickleback groups, the followers are just as important as the leaders to the actions of the group.
Scientists from Cambridge University used pairs of Three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in tanks and watched their movements to establish the tendency of each fish to expose itself to ~risky situations by leaving plant cover to search for food. The fish that showed the highest tendencies to leave cover were designated ~leaders .
The bold fish were then paired randomly with a shy fish and their movements were recorded. The scientists found that when the two fish were unable to see each other, there was no difference in their behaviour, however, when they had visual contact, both the leader and the follower became braver and were up to two and a half times more likely to venture out from cover.
One of the key scientists Andrea Manica said. If a shy individual is paired with a very bold individual, the latter ~inspires the former into becoming a very faithful follower. Conversely, a very shy individual seems to bring out the leadership of the bolder companion, which becomes a much stronger leader than if it was paired with a less shy companion.
As one might imagine, from looking at couples where one partner is loud and overbearing and the other quiet and meek, this study showed that leadership emerges from differences in temperament. Bolder individuals became leaders due to their greater tendency to leave cover but also because they were less responsive to the movements of their partners. In contrast, shyer individuals were more likely to be influenced by their partners behaviour and became followers.
Our study shows that the process by which leaders and followers emerge is a dynamic one, said Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge. Individuals aren't simply born leaders or followers, but their role in a pair - and we could speculate, in a larger group - is the result of social feedback where everyone plays a role.
The team add that instead of focussing on developing good leadership skills, people might do better to take a lesson from the stickleback and focus on their followership skills as well!