Biases in Leadership Perception: The Role of Implicit
Leadership Theories, Attachment Style, Attentional
Capacity, and Accuracy Motivation

Abstract

Previous work suggested that followers’ insecure attachment style might bias the
accuracy of follower leadership ratings (Davidovitz, Mikulincer, Shaver, Izsak, & Popper,
2007; Hansbrough, 2012), possibly also via followers’ implicit leadership theories (ILTs;
Berson, Dan, & Yammarino, 2006; Keller, 2003). We argue that both followers’ attachment
anxiety and avoidance—due to non-constructive emotion regulation and hence limited
attentional capacity—lead to a biased leadership perception due to a greater usage of ILTs
when rating a leader. In three online studies with full-time employed participants from the
US and UK, we assessed both followers’ ILTs and leadership ratings together with their
attachment style. Using an experimental design, Study 1 (N = 218) had participants rate a
fictitious leader presented in a written vignette. In Study 2 (N = 217), participants rated their
own supervisor. In Study 3 (N = 260), participants were asked to watch a video of a team
meeting before rating the leader. Results indicated that the higher participants’ attachment
avoidance, the more they relied on their ILTs when rating a leader. Study 3 found support
suggesting that this was due to a decrease of attentional capacity. However, when under
high working memory demands, the higher attachment avoidance, the less they relied on
their ILTs, probably due to a breakdown of their defense-mechanism of blocking out
information related to social perception (Edelstein & Gillath, 2008; Mikulincer, Dolev, &
Shaver, 2004). Perceptual biases related to attachment anxiety were inconsistent. Results
from Study 3 suggest that this might have been due to the interplay of a lack of attentional
capacity and heightened accuracy motivation for participants high in attachment anxiety.