In September the University of Toronto Press will publish my next book. It’s titled Why We Follow Leaders – and Why We Don’t. These are the four questions to which the book provides answers. First, what are our rewards for following? Second, what are our punishments for not following? Third, what are our rewards for not following? Fourth, what are our punishments for following?
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As I frequently point out, for every billion books and articles about leadership there is one about followership. Imagine my surprise then when, in just the last few days, two items that made news were not about leaders but about followers.
Both were articles about work done by academic researchers. In one case the research was based on followers in Nazi Germany. (Germans during the Nazi era – the many who supported Hitler and the few who resisted him – have been grist for academic mills since the 1950s.) And in the other case the research was based on followers during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War, in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Researchers at Harvard found that those of Hitler’s followers who joined the Nazi Party before he became chancellor (in 1933) tended to be committed Nazi ideologues. In contrast, those who joined only later tended to do so less out of conviction and more out of convenience. They joined because everyone else was joining. So, they were doing no more than, but also no less than succumbing to social pressures. Conforming to what had become social norms.*
The two German social scientists who focused on what happened in Argentina found that middle or low-level bureaucrats were especially vulnerable to following orders that “violated professional obligations, fundamental norms, and even basic morality.” Why? Because if they were willing to do what their superiors told them to do – notwithstanding their superiors might be corrupt or malign – their chances of being promoted or in some other way professionally rewarded were significantly improved.**
Though they made news, neither of these findings were surprising. In fact, they were completely in keeping with earlier research on followers, especially though not exclusively of Adolf Hitler’s.
This is not, however, to diminish their importance. Expert research on followership remains all too rare. Moreover, it has special resonance in a time such as this one when the United States has a president who is a would-be strongman. When the second largest party in Germany is far-right, so far right that just a few years ago it was seen as extreme. And when the number of democracies has been in decline while the number of autocracies has been on the rise.
Of course, for someone like me who’s convinced it’s impossible to grasp leadership without followership, studies like those mentioned in this post are catnip.
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*This research was reported by Sy Boles in “Who Joined the Nazi Party?” in The Harvard Gazette, May 15, 2026.
**This research was reported by Amanda Taub in “Why Autocracies Love Loyal Losers” in the New York Times, May 20, 2026.