Centuries of kingdoms and empires have led modern western civilisation to scrap monarchic rule and work relentlessly to create and uphold democracies.
Time and again, monarchies proved to be fertile grounds for injustice, social inequality and mass poverty, leading people to revolt against, overthrow and, in some cases, even kill their kings and queens.
At best, monarchies were rendered merely a status symbol.
Yet, to this day, people seem to remain frantically fascinated by royalty, particularly the British royal family, and frequently dub even their democratically elected leaders as kings and queens.
Queen Elizabeth II died last Thursday, marking the end of a 70-year reign, the longest in British history.
Her death reverberated across the world, leading formerly colonised countries to discuss her legacy in admiration and, in Malta, it even revived the discussion on a monument honouring her rule over the islands.
Why do people still love kings and queens and seek to follow their lives? And why do they seem to never get enough of it, even though modern monarchs have become mere figure heads?
Social psychology professor Gordon Sammut’s research has led him to discover what he calls the “prototypical” individual.
He argues that masses of people drool in admiration over certain leaders because they see in them a ‘prototype’ of all that they wish to be and have.
The queen, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and the pope, to mention just a few, are frequently an embodiment of all that people wish to be.
In their book, Psychology of Social Influence, Sammut and his colleague, Martin W. Bauer say that every group of people, or country, have their own set of human features and qualities that they deem ideal.
The person within that group who comes closest to the ultimate embodiment of those ideals can very quickly rise to lead the rest with great power and influence.
“The way they lead their lives, speak, gesture with their hands leads people to admire them greatly because they want to be like them,” Sammut explained, adding that this probably accounts to the fascination with the royal family.
He also noted that some leaders are “due to individual differences, more prototypical than others”.
“Elizabeth was more prototypical than her son, Charles, because her qualities and the way she fashioned her work, marriage and family life were the closest to the ideal of how people wish to fashion their own lives... Charles’s life is further from that ideal,” Sammut explained.
“Similarly, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict both possess many ideal qualities but the real prototype in that scenario is Pope John Paul II.”
Sammut said the prototype varies in different countries as well. Russian people drooled over a shirtless Putin riding a horse when the image appeared in the media because they aspire to the ideal of military might.
Similarly, Americans loved Trump for being a gutsy man enough to speak about grabbing women by their genitals.
“That is why Maltese people find it hard to understand how Russians can like Putin and Americans can like Trump, because the Maltese ideal is embodied in a diplomatic, fully-suited individual,” he said.
“I don’t believe the Maltese people would vote for a shirtless leader riding a horse and carrying a machine gun.”