Leadership in dyadic groups as a function of dominance and incentives.

Abstract

Forty-five female Ss who scored high on CPI Dominance (Do) were matched with 45 Ss who scored at least 17 points lower on the scale. Dyads were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (No Incentive, Equal Incentive, and Unequal Incentive) in order to study the effect of financial incentives on the expression of dominance via leadership and on task performance. As predicted, high-Do Ss assumed the leadership role more often, and the time spent deciding who would be leader was longer in the unequal incentives condition. Incentives did not have a significant effect upon performance, but task performance was significantly affected by whether a highor low-Do S was in the leadership role.