Moral Reasoning and Political Leader Preference of Senior High School Students of a Private School

Kohlberg’s moral development theory focuses on the thinking process that occurs when one makes a moral decision. Kohlberg had identified three stages of moral development: Pre-conventional, Conventional, and post-conventional. Moral reasoning, as perceived to be a factor in the decision-making, is a rational act guided by moral principles. It is a subjective evaluation related to practical reasoning, where one justifies the idea based on how a person views various thing. Moreover, decisions rely on reasoning; moral reasoning is related to making a congruent decision when a person creates preference takes more courage in deciding whom to elect during elections. Voting preferences can be affected by certain factors such as peer influence, media influence, family influence, and church/religious community. Political leader preference is described as a judgment based on evaluations and observations through interaction with political content. It may also refer to a political or philosophical opinion on an individual pertained to be a candidate for leadership. Like the Senior High School (SHS) students, some new voters are easily swayed by some politicians. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of moral reasoning and the degree of preference for a political leader of SHS students when grouped according to sex, family monthly income, age, and church ministry involvement. Specifically, it also compares the degree of preference for political leaders when grouped according to variables and correlates moral reasoning and preference for political leaders. Likewise, it explores other factors that influence the political leaders’ preference.

Leadership Preferences of Conservatives: A Desire for Cold/Cruel Dominance with (Conflicting) Links to Sadism

Recent findings suggest political conservatives prefer dominant leaders (Laustsen & Petersen, 2015, 2016). However, the exact sociofunctional nature of the desired dominance is unclear. Evolutionary psychology suggests two possibilities: coordinating action and imposing costs. Study 1 operationalizes these functions using the agency and nurturance axes of the interpersonal circumplex, with respondents characterizing either themselves or their ideal leaders, thereby creating “dominance profiles” for various measures of conservatism. Results show Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), self-reported conservatism, strong-leader authoritarianism, and (to a lesser degree) Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) predict a preference for low-nurturance (i.e., cold/cruel) leaders. Unexpectedly, conservatives show no preference for agentic leadership. SDO and strong-leader authoritarianism show a preference for passive leadership. Study 2 examined whether the cold/cruel preference shown in Study 1 entails a conservative preference for sadistic leaders or leaders with other dark tendencies (e.g., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, ruthless self-advancement, rejection of ethics). Multiple regression analyses reveal SDO, strong-leader authoritarianism, and RWA as the best predictors of sadistic-leader preference. Interestingly, RWA is a negative predictor. Additional analyses find multiple dark-leader preferences for several conservatism measures (but not RWA). Among other implications, the results suggest SDO may reflect a strategy seeking exploitation rather than intergroup hierarchies.

Call synchrony and the evolutionary origins of leader preference in Neoconocephalus ensiger katydids

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Many species of acoustically communicating insects and anurans display a female preference for males producing their calls just ahead of those of their neighbors. The evolutionary origin of these preferences is unclear. We test whether leader preference is adaptive in Neoconocephalus katydids. The ability to produce leading calls was not correlated with male quality in a species with leader preference or two closely related species without the preference. However, in N. ensiger, the species with the preference, females mating with leaders produced higher quality offspring than those mating with followers. This suggested that leader preference is adaptive and selected for in this species. The ability to produce leading calls was not heritable, meaning that the preference cannot have an evolutionary effect on the male trait and they will not become coupled. Male N. ensiger adjust the timing of their chirps relative to their neighbors, which leads to synchrony within a chorus. The mechanism used by N. ensiger males differs from that of all previously described species with acoustic synchrony. Neoconocephalus ensiger males adjust their actual intrinsic chirp rate to match that of other males. The characteristics that determine a male's ability to produce leading calls and the specific source of the female fitness benefit are yet unknown.

Competition and cooperation in a synchronous bushcricket chorus

Synchronous signalling within choruses of the same species either emerges from cooperation or competition. In our study on the katydid Mecopoda elongata , we aim to identify mechanisms driving evolution towards synchrony. The increase of signal amplitude owing to synchronous signalling and the preservation of a conspecific signal period may represent cooperative mechanisms, whereas chorus synchrony may also result from the preference of females for leading signals and the resulting competition for the leader role. We recorded the timing of signals and the resulting communal signal amplitudes in small choruses and performed female choice experiments to identify such mechanisms. Males frequently timed their signals either as leader or follower with an average time lag of about 70 ms. Females selected males in such choruses on the basis of signal order and signal duration. Two-choice experiments revealed a time lag of only 70 ms to bias mate choice in favour of the leader. Furthermore, a song model with a conspecific signal period of 2 s was more attractive than a song model with an irregular or longer and shorter than average signal period. Owing to a high degree of overlap and plasticity of signals produced in ‘four male choruses’, peak and root mean square amplitudes increased by about 7 dB relative to lone singers. Modelling active space of synchronous males and solo singing males revealed a strongly increased broadcast area of synchronous signallers, but a slightly reduced per capita mating possibility compared with lone singers. These results suggest a strong leader preference of females as the ultimate causation of inter-male competition for timing signals as leader. The emerging synchrony increases the amplitude of signals produced in a chorus and has the potential to compensate a reduction of mating advantage in a chorus. We discuss a possible fitness benefit of males gained through a beacon effect and the possibility that signalling as follower is stabilized via natural selection.

Self-Concept, Implicit Leadership Theories, and Follower Preferences for Leadership

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that shape followers’ initial reactions to leaders. Based on the literature on self-concept and leader categorization theory, it was hypothesized that followers’ self-concepts (specifically their self-esteem and self-construal) would predict their conceptualization of an ideal leader (i.e., their implicit leadership theory, ILT), which would then predict followers’ preferences for specific leadership styles. Using a sample of 206 university students, results indicated that the effects of independent self-construal on charismatic leader preference were partially mediated by the dedication ILT dimension, and the effects of interdependent self-construal were fully mediated by the sensitivity ILT dimension. Additional findings and directions for future research are discussed.