Leadership Position Correlates with Self‑Rated Risk Tolerance in People and Chimpanzees

A recent comparative investigation finds that people holding leadership positions tend to rate themselves as more comfortable with risk than those who do not, a trend that also appears in our closest primate cousins.

The team asked adult participants from a variety of jobs to evaluate how willing they were to take financial, social and physical risks. Respondents who described themselves as managers, team leaders or other authority figures consistently assigned themselves higher risk‑loving scores than participants without formal leadership duties.

Similar patterns emerged among captive chimpanzee groups, where scientists observed individuals of different social ranks. High‑ranking chimps more frequently performed bold actions—such as approaching unfamiliar food or confronting rivals—behaviors that observers classified as risk‑taking compared with the more cautious choices of lower‑ranking members.

The parallel results in both species imply that a tendency toward risk may be linked to the pressures of attaining and keeping a dominant status. Evolutionary perspectives suggest that leaders willing to gamble on new strategies or face challenges could secure advantages that reinforce their rank, whereas risk‑averse individuals may be better suited to subordinate positions.

These findings prompt questions about how self‑perceived risk tolerance shapes decision‑making in corporate, political and military arenas. If leaders systematically overestimate their willingness to take risks, strategic choices and organizational outcomes could be affected. The authors call for further longitudinal research to monitor how risk attitudes shift as people move up or down the hierarchy, and to investigate whether comparable patterns occur in other social mammals.