Leadership Status, Gender, Group Size, and Emotion in Face-to-Face Groups

In two experiments, we investigated the emotional reactions of group members in typical face-to-face interaction on different tasks. Results from both experiments supported the proposition that high-status group leaders would report more positive emotional reactions to group work than would non-leaders. We also found that women reported more positive emotion than men. Unexpectedly, we also found that women leaders were rated more likable than other group members while men leaders were not. As expected, leaders were rated as more competent and willing to contribute than were other group members. Less expected was the finding that women leaders were rated as competent and as willing to contribute as men leaders. While women leaders were not rated less competent than men leaders, members of groups led by a woman rated group performance lower than did members of groups led by a man. Group size did not affect the degree of positive emotion of group members or ratings of leaders, perhaps because differences in size among groups were small. Of methodological interest, experimentally induced status differences maintained themselves through several weeks of group interaction.