By Gaia Giordani. Cover by Margie Mitchem.
There’s a secret ingredient that is essential to boost your motivation and achieve your life goals. It’s the amazing and mystic figure of the role model – someone who can guide you through a journey to achieve greatness. Our first role models are our parents. We cannot escape the natural drive towards our parental figures as beacons in early life.
As we grow up, we choose our idols: the sports champions that we want to emulate, the rock stars we aspire to become, and the almost unmatchable people who stand out for their skills and achievements. We want to be like them, and we seek their example to try and follow a similar path. That is precisely what is happening with the presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
A role model is much more than a mentor who can shape your views or an influencer to follow for inspiration. It is an individual that you should choose because you actually admire them in something you want to emulate.
The Kamala effect
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has provided us with a great key visual for this concept: her niece looking at her in admiration for the first black woman Vice President in the history of the United States and the first to run for President.
With the same admiration, Harris celebrates her first and lifelong mentor, her mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris, for her dedication, determination, and courage, which shaped who she is today.
In a message to a young girl, Kana, and young ladies in general, Kamala Harris said: “I am counting on you to be a leader. Know that you can do anything, even if it hasn’t been done before.” These words are very empowering because they enlighten everyone to pursue a personal path.
Kamala Harris is not saying that anyone could one day be the first black President of the US. She’s just encouraging young people to try unexplored paths, fight the establishment, and find new solutions to old problems. It’s a wild card to be yourself while exploring your personal journey. It’s a powerful one-fits-all life hack, and at the same time, it is tailor-made advice.
How to pick a role model? Ask Seneca
If role models were ever “invented”, the pioneers of the art of role modelling can be found in Ancient Greece, specifically the Stoics, with philosopher Seneca as the frontman.
He perfectly described how to pick a mentor in his Moral Letters: “Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval. Always point him out to yourself as your guardian or as your model. There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make the crooked straight.”
Celebrities and social media influencers have a special responsibility to be role models: not only in their public lives but also in their private lives, they must be blameless. Their audience expects them to be good people and project trustworthiness and relatability.
We know it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to be perfect, and that some negative traits or habits that clash with our core values can diminish our admiration for someone we once deeply respected.
Beware of the Halo and Horn effect
By definition, role models are individuals who can positively shape society by serving as successful examples. However, they are also humans with flaws and complexities, so you may feel disappointed if you learn that your favourite songwriter is a sexual predator, supports a despicable politician, holds unspeakable racist views or worse.
Personal beliefs of public individuals have an impact on their whole appeal as role models. The Halo effect refers to a cognitive bias that affects us when we are blinded by the influence of previous positive judgments on someone, and then we assume they are good people in every aspect of their life.
On the other hand, the Horn effect occurs when one mistake causes someone to fall from grace. For example, JK Rowling transphobic statements have alienated much of her fan base. Other examples include celebrity offspring dropping their estranged, famous fathers’ family names or the massive blocking of social media influencers with dubious or outrageous personal beliefs.
Cancel culture is affecting so many individuals who could serve as positive role models based on a single piece of content that can destroy their whole character: just a negative comment on social media can undermine their credibility on the basis of fundamental beliefs.
The perfect role model must have it all
According to neuroscience, choosing a relatable role model can boost your chances to succeed on the same task or in similar fields. Three key qualities of a role model can significantly impact your self-efficacy: the perceived competence of the role model, their relatability, and your feeling or perception that their success is attainable. Relatability, in particular, plays a crucial role if you want to succeed in fields where some of your identity traits are underrepresented. Female artists and scientists are positive role models who can reduce the gender gap in male-dominated fields thanks to their ability to convey a positive and more inclusive image of those careers.
We know that breaking a world record or climbing the music charts is something that few people achieve. Role models not only give us hope but also show us that it is possible to be where they stand. That’s why iconic artists, directors, professional sports players, movie stars, and Nobel Prize winners are not great choices as role models. They’re extremely competent, but they are not relatable and seem out of reach to emulate.
Your grandad could fit the bill. Your big sister. Your teacher, who is also a mentor. Usually, it is someone older than you who has already travelled the path you’re on and has gained valuable insights that you’d like to learn from and apply to your own journey.
