Gender-contingent effects of leadership on loneliness

Abstract

This article builds from role congruity theory to develop and test a theoretical model about the gender-contingent experiences of loneliness for individuals taking on leadership roles. Across three complementary studies using diverse methods, occupying a leader role was associated with greater loneliness for women, but not for men. This effect was mediated by authenticity such that women experienced less authenticity when they occupied leader roles, but men did not. Study 1 applied a propensity score matching method to a longitudinal, archival data set. Study 2 replicated and extended Study 1 by examining the mediating mechanism of authenticity using a laboratory experiment. Study 3 adopted a two-wave survey design to address the limitations of the previous studies and replicate their results. The findings contribute to theory on how occupying leader roles affects incumbents’ affective experiences by shifting the perspective of role congruity theory from observers’ perceptions of leaders to leaders’ subjective experiences, and accordingly contribute to understanding of the undesirable aspects of leader roles. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)