Should leaders conform? Developmental evidence from the United States and China.

Leadership is inextricably embedded in human groups. One central obligation of leaders is to embody the identity of their group by acting in line with group norms. Yet little is known about how leadership and conformity are initially associated in people's minds, how this association develops in childhood, and how cultural values shape this association. The present research tested 4- to 11-year-olds in the United States and China to address these questions by comparing children's evaluations of a leader's versus an ordinary group member's nonconformity. In Experiments 1 and 3 (