The Symbiosis of Narcissistic Leaders and Low Self-Esteem Followers: Dominance Complementarity in Childhood

Around the world, narcissistic leaders are on the rise. Although research has documented the harmful consequences of narcissistic leadership, little is known about the interplay between narcissistic leaders and their followers. Building on dominance-complementarity theory, we theorized that the dominance and confidence of narcissistic leaders would match well with the submissiveness and insecurity of followers with low self-esteem. We conducted an observational-experimental study (N = 332; 46% boys; 96% born in the Netherlands) in childhood (ages 7-14), a critical period for the formation of leader-follower relationships. Children completed a collaborative decision-making task in three-person groups. Within each group, one child was randomly assigned as leader; others were followers. We combined self-reports, informant reports, and observer-coded behaviors to provide a rigorous test of our hypotheses. Consistent with dominance-complementarity theory, in groups with a more narcissistic leader, followers with lower self-esteem perceived their leader as more effective, endorsed the leader more strongly for future leadership roles, felt better about themselves, perceived greater group cohesion, experienced less exclusion and bullying from the leader, and showed less antagonistic behavior. This complementarity effect generalized to observer-coded leader behavior: In groups with lower self-esteem followers, more narcissistic leaders showed less aggression and less social exclusion toward their followers. Our research reveals early manifestations of leader-follower dynamics in childhood, underlines the importance of leader-follower compatibility, and uncovers conditions under which narcissistic leadership can benefit versus harm the group.