A Professor of Psychology believes we gravitate towards more dominant and power-hungry bosses.

Florida State University's Jon Maner categorises leaders into prestige and dominant traits and although people would prefer a prestige leader, we're often attracted to dominant bosses because they're perceived as strong.

He told Mike Hosking the best kind of bosses are the ones who can balance both traits.

"In fact most people have the capacity for both. The best leaders are able to split fluidly from one style of leadership to the other, depending on the situation."

Maner will be doing a public lecture about the science of leadership at the University of Auckland this week.

LISTEN TO JON MANER TALK WITH MIKE HOSKING ABOVE