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.
«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.