«Our research and the literature demonstrate that there is a preference for physically formidable leaders that likely reflects
an evolved psychological trait, independent of any cultural conditioning,» report co-author Professor Gregg Murray said.
The principal investigators of the research —
psychological scientists Michael Bang Petersen of Aarhus University, Denmark and Daniel Sznycer of University of California, Santa Barbara — believe that the link may reflect
psychological traits that
evolved in response to our early ancestral environments and continue to influence behavior today.