Leaders embody shared identity by styling themselves as category prototypes

Evidence

Third, whether by descriptions of their background, through autobiography or even through the ways they dress, politicians seek to create an image of themselves that matches their image of the category more generally. At the extreme, leaders may even create a personal mythology through which they become the living embodiment of the nation. Wilner (1984), for example, details the way in which the Indonesian leader Sukharno came to be represented as Bima, the legendary hero and demi-god of Javanese and Balinese mythology. This was along multiple dimensions. The tale of Sukharno’s career was told so as to emphasise how he embodied Bima’s two key attributes— bravery and a stubborn will. The parallels between Bima’s muscular appearance and that of Sukharno were accentuated. Sukharno spoke in a booming voice and a low Javanese dialect that violated the norms of Indonesia’s dominant cultural groups but which resonated with Bima’s usage. Sukharno was brutal in his gestures and his verbal style, once again violating aristocratic manners but emulating Bima. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 83

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reading purpose: this shows leaders embodying (embodying via protest-behavior violations) shared identity to present themselves as natural extensions of the category — a prototype-embodiment mechanism comparable to others elsewhere in this volume. — connects to: Leadership is impossible without a pre-existing or manufactured shared social identity — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 50; Category definitions determine who mobilizes, for what, and who leads — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 75; Leaders strategically define social categories to advance their mobilization projects — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 80 (+6 more)
• SEED: The Sukharno/Bima case is a vivid worked example of a leader curating a mythological persona — could anchor an essay on leader self-fashioning as nation-branding.

Broader Connections

• Leaders are accepted only when embodying features shared with followers #corroborates (0.88) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 153
• Categories are mentally represented by idealized prototypical members #corroborates (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1380
• Leaders politicize groups by embodying the shared identity that makes their frames normative #exemplifies (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4439
• Leadership requires both shared identity and consensus on who best embodies the group view #expands (0.82) — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 67
• Leadership requires shared identity but also active identity entrepreneurship by leaders. #qualifies (0.80) — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 124
• Leaders substantiate identity rhetoric through social practices that enact the desired vision #qualifies (0.78) — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 114