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Leadership depends on the network of people you influence and the networks that influence you.
Several recent economics studies examine the influence of social networks on people’s decisions.
In “Leadership in Social Movements: Evidence from the ‘Forty-Eighters’ in the Civil War,” the authors look at social activists who supported the European revolutions of 1848. Forty-Eighters in German-speaking regions backed more democratic governments, human rights guarantees and the unification of Germany.
After the revolutions were put down, many were forced to emigrate or be imprisoned. Many who came to the United States before the American Civil War became active in campaigning against American slavery and later in mobilizing volunteers for the Union Army. The authors find that the presence of Forty-Eighters increased Union Army volunteering in a typical Northern town by about two-thirds, or about eight more enlistments per 100 adult men.
The second article, “Heroes and Villains: The Effects of Heroism on Autocratic Values and Nazi Collaboration in France,” looks at Philippe Pétain, the hero of the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
The battle was widely regarded as epitomizing the heroic and noble French will to resist and endure. However, after France fell to Germany in 1940, Pétain asked his fellow citizens to collaborate with the German Nazis.
The authors find that those who served under Pétain were about 6% more likely to collaborate with the Nazis. Likewise, nonveterans from the municipalities whose men had served under Pétain at Verdun were about 7% more likely to collaborate with the Germans than were people in other French municipalities.
Collaboration includes various activities such as economic collaboration with the Nazis, joining collaborationist political organizations, joining paramilitary units that hunted Jews and members of the Resistance, and even joining German combat and auxiliary units.
The authors argue that a network of heroes can legitimize extreme political behaviors. In this case, many in a web of heroes became known as some of France’s greatest villains.
Economics considers individuals who cooperate with others through networks such as markets and institutions to achieve common goals.
Networks create opportunities for improving our health, wealth and relationships but also for hurting others.
We shape our networks, and they shape our thoughts and decisions. Friendship creates opportunities and risks that remind us of Goethe’s saying, “Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.” A social network is a double-edged sword for good and evil.•
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Bohanon and Horowitz are professors of economics at Ball State University. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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