Individual differences in leadership emergence: Integrating meta-analytic findings and behavioral genetics estimates

This paper investigates the extent to which differences in the likelihood of emerging as leaders are explained by genetic differences between individuals. Results indicated that approximately 17% of the variance in the latent construct of leadership emergence is explained by genetic effects that are mediated by intelligence and the Big Five personality traits. Because intelligence and the Big Five do not mediate all genetic influences on leadership emergence (other genetically-influenced personal characteristics, such as height and attractiveness, are likely to mediate genetic effects on leadership emergence), the heritability estimate obtained in this study represents a lower-bound estimate of the genetic influences on leadership emergence.