Leadership is arguably one of the most important themes in the social sciences, yet until recently has been largely overlooked in the natural sciences (Dyer et al., 2009; King et al., 2009; Van Vugt, 2006). In fact, search for articles on the topic of "leadership" on the ISI Web of Knowledge and it will return nearly 5500 psychology related articles, but less than 500 in the disciplines of ecology, zoology, and behavioural science. The difference in the volumes of research in each field is largely a consequence of the contexts in which leadership is studied. In the social science literature, the study of leadership is vast and questions are asked concerning political, commercial, educational, environmental and moral leadership. In contrast, for natural scientists, interest in leadership has arisen as a consequence of researchers asking questions about collective movements. For example, how does a group of individuals decide when to move? Or, how does a group decide where to move? When beginning to tackle such questions we first see the outcome: an individual at the front of a group progression, moving in a particular direction, with group-mates following closely.
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机译：领导力可以说是社会科学中最重要的主题之一，但是直到最近，自然科学还是被人们忽视了（Dyer等，2009; King等，2009; Van Vugt，2006）。实际上，在ISI Web of Knowledge上搜索有关“领导力”主题的文章，它将返回近5500篇与心理学相关的文章，但在生态学，动物学和行为科学等学科中则不到500篇。每个领域研究量的差异很大程度上是领导力研究背景的结果。在社会科学文献中，对领导力的研究非常广泛，并提出了有关政治，商业，教育，环境和道德领导力的问题。相比之下，对于自然科学家而言，由于研究人员提出有关集体运动的问题，人们对领导力产生了兴趣。例如，一群人如何决定何时搬家？或者，一群人如何决定去哪儿？当开始解决这些问题时，我们首先看到的结果是：一个人处于小组进展的最前面，朝着特定的方向前进，而同伴则紧随其后。
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