Our research team investigates how leadership, power, and inequality emerge and evolve in human societies. We focus on the causes and mechanisms of inequality, exploring in particular how disparities arise and persist through network processes rather than merit alone. We examine how feedback and reinforcement create and amplify advantages in connectivity or influence, generating self-perpetuating hierarchies and path-dependent success. While we place particular emphasis on the role of social networks, our work extends beyond network structures to encompass broader inequality generating mechanisms. Inequality is understood broadly — encompassing not only material differences but also unequal access to information, beliefs, and influence.

LPI members draw on theoretical modeling, network analysis, experiments, and computational and statistical approaches to uncover the generative processes that link individual interactions to collective outcomes. By combining perspectives across disciplines, we seek to explain how social structure both reflects and reproduces patterns of leadership, power, and inequality over time.