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During a party conference in Lahtis, Finland's acting prime minister - Sanna Marin - made a statement to the Finnish people, and the rest of the world: I haven't missed a single day of work; I'll learn my lesson”. Tears were pouring down her cheeks.
Link to source.
Why did Marin make the speech? Why did she say what she said, and why was she crying?
This is of course very complex questions to answer, but by using a mix of science and previous cases, it's possible to establish a pattern that offers an understanding.
I'm a experimental psychologist who specializes in emotional psychology (Österberg, 2001), how parent-relations influence humans' emotional and social adjustment and cognitive development (Österberg, 2004), and prospective thinking. In my doctoral thesis, I developed a model for executive leadership that influence work climate and social creativity (Österberg, 2012).
During the work with my doctoral thesis, I conducted a series of interviews with business executives (n>30). Initially it was for the thesis, but the result from the interviews was never included.
The purpose of the interviews was to mine information for certain concepts. It’s also important to have a cover story. Cover stories work to confuse respondents about the purpose of the study. If they understand the purpose of a study, that may influence their response. Because of that, I also asked about other things.
I asked questions about seven concepts, and one of these concepts was if any of the executives could give any examples of mistakes they had done when they were on duty - at work. A majority of respondents avoided answering the question, instead applying defensive argumentation. When I quantified the data I could reject any influence of gender. That means, men and women applied defensive argumentation to the same extent.
One of the subjects was an executive for a large tech firm. On request for an example of a mistake ze had done, the executive showed me ze's laptop where ze had written an apology to one employee. Ze then started to tell me about the importance of admitting being wrong in front of the people working in the organization. The executive went so far as to claim that admitting being wrong is one of ze's most important tools as a leader.
Its also important to understand that even though men and women seem to use defensive argumentation to the same extent, they are different from psycho-physiological point of view, including how they express their emotions. In our anthropological record, female Homo Sapiens have used crying as a means to sway other person's attitudes in their favor; crying is the result of a strong emotional reaction and tears contain certain pheromones that decreases sexual arousal in men and increases social bonding and compassion (Gelstein et al. 2011)
In 2021, I proposed Rational entrepreneurial thinking (Österberg, 2021; In Swedish though). The model has a three factor structure:
- Epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010).
- Numeracy (Brooks and Pui, 2010).
- Disjunctive reasoning (Stanovich, 2009).
Epistemic vigilance means being suspicious of a message, as well as the purpose of sending the message.
Numeracy, which is the foundation for rational thinking, means the ability to understand, reason with, and to apply simple numerical concepts.
Disjunctive reasoning means taking all aspects into account before making a judgment or a decision.
Showing emotions is key for any leader. But it's equally important to frame the emotional display with a proper prospect. And being honest is also a good thing.
Likewise, dancing at school or at work is a good thing because it facilitates open mindedness, creativity, and entrainment - rhythmic synchronization of behavior, including conversations (Borrie, 2017; Österberg and Köping Olsson, 2021).
Drinking alcohol is not an issue if you have a day of, but at work is another thing.
The backstory of the Marin-affair is that Finland experienced a political crisis when prime minister Ante Rinne was forced to resign, not only from his role as prime minister but also as the chairman for Finnish social democrats. He was replaced by Marin.
Link to source.
When Marin replaced Ante Rinne, she became the youngest [acting] prime minister in the history of Finland.
In early 2020 a new virus appeared from China - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) which, if it travels through our species, can attach to something called Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2) - receptors in the nose, resulting in Covid19 and a “cytokine storm”. For people who already had some disease, the risk of getting really sick or dying was higher compared to those who were physically fit.
Decision making is hard, but science demonstrates that decentralizing decision making to the level of operations, the experts, is the best way to go about it.
In Sweden, that approach was applied.
In Finland, Marin decided that this would be a political concern, i.e., the non-experts should make the decisions.
Therefore, the Marin-led government decided to lock-down the country Nyland, in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading.
In a comparison between Sweden and Finland, excess death was significantly higher in Finland:
 |
| This table was added later. |
Also, according to local politicians testimony during the local election of 2021, mental illness increased dramatically and was soaring.
Finnish state owned YLE News reported that suicide rates increased by 15% (Link to source).
I published three articles about the prospects after Sars-Cov (2) on my research blog:
On the Psychology of Toilet Paper (SARS-CoV-2/COVID19): the Case for Disjunctive Reasoning
What's the Post-SARS-CoV-2/COVID19 Prospect?
Kan vi sluta oroa oss för Sars-Cov (2) pandemin och flytta fokus från händerna till näsan?
On December 3 or 4, 2021, after a meeting with the Finnish government, foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto's (Green) contracted the Sars-Cov (2). All members of the government were informed to self-isolate, but they couldn't reach Marin. She was at a night club with her husband and some friends. And despite being on duty, she had left her work phone at the office. When the media caught wind of the incident, Marin was quick to apologize and apply defensive argumentation. Notable post hoc.
Link to source.
Instead of discussing the increasing excess deaths from Sars-Cov (2), soaring depression, and increased suicide rate, Marin's respons was to take to media and claim that Finland was the happiest country on the planet:
Link to source.
In reality, the inquiry doesn't assess happiness - it assesses life satisfaction. And the inquiry doesn't cover the World, but 150 (77% out of 195 countries) countries. And third, nobody knows if the sample covers both of Finland's two cultures, the Swedish-Finnish and the Uralic-Finnish.
April 6, 2022, Helsingfors police department said that women's relational aggression (Hyde, 2005) is a big problem.
May 14, 2022, a director from Finland's ministry of Education claimed that Finnish kids don't understand what they read, and they lack numeracy - the ability to understand, reason with, and to apply simple numerical concepts.
On Marin's official visit to neighbor Sweden, she broke the etiquette which means that when visiting Sweden, Finnish politicians also greet in Swedish (HBL, in Swedish). It's explained by the fact that between the ending of the viking era until Russia's invasion of the Swedish fortress Sveaborg (1748 -), Finland was the Eastern part of the Swedish king, sharing more than 60 kings, and language - Swedish.
Uralic-Finnish was imposed by Russia in an attempt to split the people around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic sea from their longstanding and fruitful cooperation. This movement is called Fennomania (1810) and still has the purpose of suppressing everything Swedish in Finland.
In his Gifford lecture 3 in 2019, Mark Pagel, professor of biological anthropology, said that Finland's Uralic-Finnish culture is based on tribalism.
In Early August of 2022, Marin was caught on Tik Tok doing something that looked like twerking, apparently under the Influence of alcohol (She admitted that post hoc).
Then she was caught having what looked like an extra-marital affair.
Link to source.
Then there was a third incident:
Link to source.
On August 24, Marin showed up on a town square in Lahtis, a Finnish city situated 108 km north of the capital Helsingfors. Marin's party had gone to Lahtis for their annual conference. According to the media, during her speech, Marin started to cry and argue that she was only a human being. This is called defensive argumentation, and crying is a female biological impulse that triggers compassion (Gelstein et al. 2011).
Is Marin's behavior unique, or are there other examples of people acting in a similar way?
In a previous case in 1995, Sweden's vice prime minister, Mona Sahlin, had to resign after what became known as the Toblerone - scandal.
Link to source.
Sahlin, despite having a salary exceeding the general average in Sweden, had used the credit card she got because of her role as member of parliament to cover work-related expenses, for private consumption. And it was no small amount she spent - 5500 euros, approximately 8000 euros in today's value. This is basically illegal; if an average person would do the same thing, it's likely they would have to spend time in jail.
But Sahlin famously didn't admit any wrong-doing. Instead, she tried to change the discourse using the oldest trick in the book - by victimizing herself. She claimed it was only about a couple of Toblerone's. She probably also wept some tears.
But the truth caught up on her, and she had to resign.
Sahlin later returned to politics as chairman of the Social Democrats, but had to resign again after she submitted a false affidavit on behalf of her bodyguard.
Link to source.
Right after Sahlin-Toblerone-gate, the American president - Bill Clinton - was caught having an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton famously used defensive argumentation claiming:
The truth to the matter was that Clinton and Lewinsky had an affair between 1995-1997, but Clinton refused to admit it. Surprisingly, he was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. But the story took another turn.
During the summer of 2021, acting Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven announced that he intended to resign from his post as chairman for the Swedish social democrats. One implication from that was that he would also step down from his role as acting prime minister. It was a surprise call, because Löfven had previously announced that he had planned to stay on the post for a long time.
One reason for Löfven's resignation could be his track-record - being dismissed twice:
Löfven was replaced by Magdalena Andersson who famously had to resign after only seven hours.
Link to source.
May, 2022, it became known that Hillary Clinton's claim that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians government originated from her own organization. She had until then refused to accept her loss to Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
.
Link to source.
Both Magdalena Andersson and Hillary Clinton send their regards to support Marin.
Link to source.
But are there good examples where leaders have admitted being wrong and where emotional expressions have been applied in a fruitful way?
In 1994, Estonia sank. It was a horrible tragedy killing more than 800 people.
In his first communication via media, Ronald Bergman, the executive for Nordström and Thulin, the company who owned the ship together with the Estonian government, addressed that the share-holders would not be harmed [financially]. The statement caused havoc.
According to rumors, Bergman, the executive, understood that he made a grave mistake and consulted some communications experts. They probably advised him to be both honest and emotional. Being emotional, like weeping, releases pheromones that trigger compassion (Gelstein et al. 2011).
Mr Bergman accepted the advice. In his second speech he talked about the loss of people and tears may have poured down his cheeks.
Link to source.
Being able to understand other people's standpoints is called Theory of mind, which unpacks at early age, and is probable explained by the conditions in the home environment.
Link to source.
(Pagel, 2019, Gifford lecture 1-4) theory of mind emerged ~200 000 years ago with grammatical language. It unpacks at around age 4. Its manifestation is emotional [and social] adjustment.
Human emotional adjustment and cognitive development is very intense at first years of living, and this is followed by social adjustment. There's father-effect - kids who grow up with both parents or the father have better emotional and social adjustment as well as cognitive development, compare to children who grow up with their mother Baumrind, 1966; Gopnik, 2016; Hart och Risley, 1995; Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna, 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004).
Sanna Marin's behavior is not unique, but she made many big mistakes during her stint as acting prime minister. It seems that she either lacks theory of mind or had bad advisors. Her behavior can also be explained by tribal thinking - Fennomania.
Please support the blog via Swish (Sweden) or MobilePay (Finland).
More about my expertise:
Executive coaching for CEOs/managers and workshops to facilitate Organizational Performance, Learning, and Creativity for Problem Solving | Lectures: Nutrition for physical and mental health | Course/lecture: children's emotional and social adjustment and cognitive development | Language training - Swedish | Academy Competency | CV | Teaching skills and experience | Summary of research project | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube-channel | TikTok | Twitter
In his Gifford lecture 3 in 2019, Mark Pagel, professor of biological anthropology, said that Finland's Uralic-Finnish culture is based on tribalism.
In Early August of 2022, Marin was caught on Tik Tok doing something that looked like twerking, apparently under the Influence of alcohol (She admitted that post hoc).
Then she was caught having what looked like an extra-marital affair.
Link to source.
Then there was a third incident:
Link to source.
On August 24, Marin showed up on a town square in Lahtis, a Finnish city situated 108 km north of the capital Helsingfors. Marin's party had gone to Lahtis for their annual conference. According to the media, during her speech, Marin started to cry and argue that she was only a human being. This is called defensive argumentation, and crying is a female biological impulse that triggers compassion (Gelstein et al. 2011).
Is Marin's behavior unique, or are there other examples of people acting in a similar way?
In a previous case in 1995, Sweden's vice prime minister, Mona Sahlin, had to resign after what became known as the Toblerone - scandal.
Link to source.
Sahlin, despite having a salary exceeding the general average in Sweden, had used the credit card she got because of her role as member of parliament to cover work-related expenses, for private consumption. And it was no small amount she spent - 5500 euros, approximately 8000 euros in today's value. This is basically illegal; if an average person would do the same thing, it's likely they would have to spend time in jail.
But Sahlin famously didn't admit any wrong-doing. Instead, she tried to change the discourse using the oldest trick in the book - by victimizing herself. She claimed it was only about a couple of Toblerone's. She probably also wept some tears.
But the truth caught up on her, and she had to resign.
Sahlin later returned to politics as chairman of the Social Democrats, but had to resign again after she submitted a false affidavit on behalf of her bodyguard.
Link to source.
Right after Sahlin-Toblerone-gate, the American president - Bill Clinton - was caught having an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton famously used defensive argumentation claiming:
I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky”.Link to source.
The truth to the matter was that Clinton and Lewinsky had an affair between 1995-1997, but Clinton refused to admit it. Surprisingly, he was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. But the story took another turn.
During the summer of 2021, acting Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven announced that he intended to resign from his post as chairman for the Swedish social democrats. One implication from that was that he would also step down from his role as acting prime minister. It was a surprise call, because Löfven had previously announced that he had planned to stay on the post for a long time.
One reason for Löfven's resignation could be his track-record - being dismissed twice:
- After the 2018 parliamentary election, he was dismissed after a prime minister's vote showed that he did not have enough support in the Swedish parliament. Between September 2018 and January 2019, Sweden was without a government. Löfven then returned to the role as acting prime minister through a special parliamentary agreement - The January Agreement, from Swedish Januari-överenskommelsen, which was abbreviated J.Ö.K., which is pronounced in the same way as GÖK, which in English becomes cuckoo.
- On June 21, 2021, Löfven and his government were ousted in a vote of no confidence by the Swedish parliament. Löfven was the first prime minister in Sweden to be ousted by a vote of no confidence (Reuters, 2022). His response was to act as nothing had happened and just laugh.
Löfven was replaced by Magdalena Andersson who famously had to resign after only seven hours.
Link to source.
May, 2022, it became known that Hillary Clinton's claim that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians government originated from her own organization. She had until then refused to accept her loss to Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
Link to source.
Both Magdalena Andersson and Hillary Clinton send their regards to support Marin.
Link to source.
But are there good examples where leaders have admitted being wrong and where emotional expressions have been applied in a fruitful way?
In 1994, Estonia sank. It was a horrible tragedy killing more than 800 people.
In his first communication via media, Ronald Bergman, the executive for Nordström and Thulin, the company who owned the ship together with the Estonian government, addressed that the share-holders would not be harmed [financially]. The statement caused havoc.
According to rumors, Bergman, the executive, understood that he made a grave mistake and consulted some communications experts. They probably advised him to be both honest and emotional. Being emotional, like weeping, releases pheromones that trigger compassion (Gelstein et al. 2011).
Mr Bergman accepted the advice. In his second speech he talked about the loss of people and tears may have poured down his cheeks.
Link to source.
Being able to understand other people's standpoints is called Theory of mind, which unpacks at early age, and is probable explained by the conditions in the home environment.
Link to source.
(Pagel, 2019, Gifford lecture 1-4) theory of mind emerged ~200 000 years ago with grammatical language. It unpacks at around age 4. Its manifestation is emotional [and social] adjustment.
Human emotional adjustment and cognitive development is very intense at first years of living, and this is followed by social adjustment. There's father-effect - kids who grow up with both parents or the father have better emotional and social adjustment as well as cognitive development, compare to children who grow up with their mother Baumrind, 1966; Gopnik, 2016; Hart och Risley, 1995; Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna, 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004).
Sanna Marin's behavior is not unique, but she made many big mistakes during her stint as acting prime minister. It seems that she either lacks theory of mind or had bad advisors. Her behavior can also be explained by tribal thinking - Fennomania.
Please support the blog via Swish (Sweden) or MobilePay (Finland).
More about my expertise:
Executive coaching for CEOs/managers and workshops to facilitate Organizational Performance, Learning, and Creativity for Problem Solving | Lectures: Nutrition for physical and mental health | Course/lecture: children's emotional and social adjustment and cognitive development | Language training - Swedish | Academy Competency | CV | Teaching skills and experience | Summary of research project | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube-channel | TikTok | Twitter
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