Ramifications of identification with political leaders: the lessons learned from the greek referendum.

Greek citiziens were recently asked by Prime Minister Tsipras to approve/reject the restrictions proposed by the EU in response to the national financial crisis; Tsipras himself publically favored a “No” vote. The social identity theory describes leadership as a process where followers who identify with the leader are likely to agree and comply with the leader’s ideas and suggestions, as well as to develop congruent action tendencies. However, the role of emotions towards the leader in these processes have been understudied. 75 greek participants reported their emotions towards, and their perceived motivations of, Tsipras's public stance towards the referendum, and their appraisal of a “yes” and “no” vote. We posited that identification with Tsipras would predict conformity to his approved policy appraisals. We found positive emotions towards Tsipras mediated the relationship between identification with Tsipras and acceptance of his beliefs towards the referendum; consequentially, inidividuals were more likely to positively apprasie a “No” vote. These results have implications for voting behavior in other contexts.