Charismatic Leaders

In this chapter, as in the last, we explore the ways in which skeptical science beliefs are formed in social environments. This time, however, we focus specifically on the leaders of anti-science groups, people we call “charismatic leaders.” While behavioral economists and cognitive psychologists have spent much time analyzing the ways in which individual shortcuts and cognitive errors cause irrational beliefs, here we turn to social psychologists to inform us about how being in a group affects the way we process risk, the way we understand complexity, how we decide to whom we give credibility, and how we determine what is true and what is false. We will see that in some cases, people in groups make decisions or hold beliefs that do not resemble decisions or beliefs they would hold on their own. In this way, groups can be said to have transformative capacity. The formation of cooperative groups was foundational in the evolution of the human species. Groups are essential for success¬ful human society. In this chapter, however, we explore the ways in which anti- science groups form around a particular type of leader. Although groups have many important and interesting dynamics, the role of the charismatic leader is a central feature of science denial groups in particular. We will look at several such charismatic leaders in this chapter: Peter Duesberg, Andrew Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, Gilles- Éric Séralini, and Wayne LaPierre. We will also look at the ways in which our brains and minds work in social settings and how exactly we are persuaded. Indeed, some of the features that make us most human, such as our ability to empathize using our imaginations and our desire to be accepted and integrated into social groups— indeed, some of the very things that enable our society to function— are also some of the features that render us most irrational and most prone to the wiles of the charismatic leader. Before we discuss the figure of the charismatic leader, it is important to examine what factors enable leadership success in the first place. In many ways, leadership is actually created by followers.