Dominance relationships refer to asymmetries of control within dyads of individuals. Whether this control is exerted over nutritional resources, space, or sexual partners does not fundamentally matter, as long as framing social interactions in terms of dominance enables the observer to better predict the outcome of these interactions (Bernstein 1981). For example, the concept of dominance can be invoked when predicting that if A has won over B in the past, then A will also win over B in the future or that if A prevails over B when competing for food, then A will also prevail over B when competing for space or sexual partners.
By contrast, dominance hierarchiesrefer to the transitive manifestation of the aforementioned asymmetries within a social group, such that if one has observed that A dominates B and B dominates C, then one can deduce that A will dominate C. This transitivity criterion plays a key normative role in determining which behavioral metrics are suitable for the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Adler, N. E., Boyce, T., Chesney, M. A., et al. (1994). Socioeconomic status and health. The challenge of the gradient. The American Psychologist, 49, 15–24.
Bernstein, I. S. (1981). Dominance: The baby and the bathwater. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 419–429.
Burmeister, S. S., Jarvis, E. D., & Fernald, R. D. (2005). Rapid behavioral and genomic responses to social opportunity. PLoS Biology, 3, e363.
Duke, A. A., Bègue, L., Bell, R., & Eisenlohr-Moul, T. (2013). Revisiting the serotonin-aggression relation in humans: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 1148–1172.
Edwards, D. H., & Kravitz, E. A. (1997). Serotonin, social status and aggression. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 7, 812–819.
Ellis, L., & Lee, E. (1995). Dominance and reproductive success among nonhuman animals: A cross-species comparison. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16, 257–333.
Greenberg, N., & Crews, D. (1990). Endocrine and behavioral responses to aggression and social dominance in the green anole lizard, Anolis carolinensis. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 77, 246–255.
Havlicek, J., Roberts, S. C., & Flegr, J. (2005). Women’s preference for dominant male odour: Effects of menstrual cycle and relationship status. Biology Letters, 1, 256–259.
Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123, 349–367.
Newton-Fisher, N. E., Thompson, M. E., Reynolds, V., et al. (2009). Paternity and social rank in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) from the Budongo Forest, Uganda. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 142, 417–428.
Pradhan, G. R., van Noordwijk, M. A., & van Schaik, C. (2012). A model for the evolution of developmental arrest in male orangutans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149, 18–25.
Price, J. (1967). The dominance hierarchy and the evolution of mental illness. Lancet, 290, 243–246.
Qu, C., Ligneul, R., Van der Henst, J.-B., & Dreher, J.-C. (2017). An integrative interdisciplinary perspective on social dominance hierarchies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21, 893–908.
Roney, J. R., & Simmons, Z. L. (2008). Women’s estradiol predicts preference for facial cues of men’s testosterone. Hormones and Behavior, 53, 14–19.
Rowell, T. E. (1974). The concept of social dominance. Behavioral Biology, 11, 131–154.
Rutte, C., Taborsky, M., & Brinkhof, M. W. G. (2006). What sets the odds of winning and losing? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 21, 16–21.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Social status and health in humans and other animals. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 393–418.
Schjelderup-Ebbe, T. (1921) Gallus domesticus in seinem täglichen Leben. Universitat Greifswald.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ligneul, R. (2018). Male Dominance Hierarchies. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_165-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_165-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences