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 repeat, 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 articles reporting findings by academic researchers. In one case the research was based on followers in Nazi Germany. And in the other case it was based on followers in Argentina during the so-called Dirty War in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Researchers at Harvard found that those among 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 the Party only later tended to do so less out of conviction and more out of convenience. They joined because everyone else was joining. They joined because they were succumbing to social pressures; they needed or wanted to conform to social norms.*
The two German social scientists who focused on what happened in Argentina discovered data that was somewhat different, though similarly it came as no surprise. They found that middle or low-level bureaucrats and officials were especially vulnerable to “violating professional obligations, fundamental norms, and even basic morality.” Why? Because if they were willing to do so on the orders of a superior, including one who was corrupt or malign, their chances of being promoted or of being in some other way professionally rewarded were significantly improved.**
Though they made news, these findings were not, as indicated, new. Rather they were 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. A time when America has a president who is, or would-be, a strongman. A time when the second largest party in Germany is far-right, so far right that even a decade ago it would have been thought extreme. And a time 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 persuaded it’s impossible to grasp leadership without grasping 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.