The Belief That Leadership Isn’t Just for Certain People Helped Some Teens See Themselves as Leaders
Most teenagers have heard some version of the phrase “born leader.” It shows up in yearbook superlatives, coaching pep talks, and praise handed to the student who always raises a hand first. But that phrase carries a second, quieter message: that leadership belongs to a select few, and everyone else should stand back. For many teens from historically excluded communities, both messages together can work like a locked door.
A new study published in Self and Identity found that a short workshop could challenge both beliefs at once, at least for some teens. Researchers ran two studies with 413 middle and high school students, 96% of whom identified with a racial or ethnic group other than White, through 90-minute to two-hour sessions built around the idea that leadership can be learned rather than inherited. When students let go of the “born leader” belief, many also felt a stronger pull toward seeing themselves as leaders. But the boost wasn’t universal, and who benefited came down to something specific: whether a teen also pictured leadership as open to people of many different backgrounds.
Leadership programs for young people in America remain unequal. The researchers point to outside reports showing White youth make up a greater membership share than population figures would predict at over half the sites of one prominent national leadership group, while in another major program, Asian youth membership was roughly a fifth of what it should be. Gaps like these shape what teenagers believe about who gets to lead.
Workshops Paired Brain Science With Stories of Real Leaders
Researchers partnered with summer programs serving historically underrepresented adolescents in a major metropolitan area. A team of mostly undergraduate facilitators, women, non-binary people, and people from Middle Eastern, Hispanic, East Asian, and Black backgrounds, led the sessions, modeling that leadership looks like many different things.
Students watched a video comparing the brain to a muscle: a bicep grows when challenged, and the brain builds connections the same way. Another activity paired photos on a screen, a stock image of a stereotypical-looking professional next to a real leader from a historically excluded group. Students guessed which was which, then heard the real story, including one neuroscientist who began as a migrant farm worker and rose to chair a department at a major medical institution.
Students also folded an origami fish, framed as proof that focused listening can be learned through practice. Then came juggling, a skill most had never tried. Students improved quickly and were shown research that juggling changed brain structure over time. The message: effort changes ability, leadership included.
Belonging Rose Most Among Teens With Inclusive Views of Leaders
In the first study, 67 students aged 13 to 18 took part in a single workshop. More than half reported letting go of some fixed beliefs about leadership, while less than a fifth reported holding onto them more tightly. Belonging didn’t budge much for the group as a whole, but person by person, the pattern was clear: teens who shed more of the “born leader” mindset also felt more like leaders themselves, even accounting for mood.
A second, larger study with 346 students from six programs added a twist. New activities pushed back on the image of a leader as a White man in a suit. Students grabbed markers and pens and drew over stock images that cast White men as the face of leadership, reworking them into something that felt truer. At the end, students received crayons, including a range of skin-tone shades, and drew a leader’s face. A separate group of 318 adults, who knew nothing about the study, rated how much racial and ethnic diversity each drawing seemed to reflect.
That drawing turned out to matter more than anything else. Among teens whose drawings scored higher on diversity, those who also let go of more fixed beliefs felt the strongest boost in belonging. Among teens whose drawings scored lower on diversity, shedding fixed beliefs barely moved the needle. One likely explanation, though untested: a wider mental picture of who can lead may make it easier to see room in that picture at all. The ratings measured general diversity, not whether a drawing matched any teen’s own race or ethnicity.
Source : https://studyfinds.com/teens-leadership-open-to-all/
