A dominance hierarchy or social hierarchy is an organizational form by which individuals within a community control the distribution of resources within the community. Dominance hierarchies are formed when a group of individuals belonging to the same species share a territory. Social hierarchy, a multi-tiered pyramid-like social or functional structure having an apex as the centralization of power. ... It has been suggested that Organizing be merged into this article or section. ... 1)A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ...

Dominance hierarchies can be despotic or linear. In a despotic hierarchy, one individual controls all the other individuals. In a linear hierarchy, of which the classic example of pecking order in hens is often cited, each individual has a rank in the hierarchy. Despotism is government by a singular authority, either a single person or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute power. ... The word linear comes from the Latin word linearis, which means created by lines. ... A hierarchy (in Greek hieros = sacred, arkho = rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. ...

Dominance hierarchies occur in most social animal species, including primates who normally live in groups. Dominance hierarchies have been extensively studied in fish, birds, and mammals. Dominance hierarchies can be simple linear structures, which often arise from the physical differences among individuals in a group in relation to their access to resources. They are also influenced by the complex social interactions among individuals in the group. A hierarchy (in Greek: , derived from — hieros, sacred, and — arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... For the ecclesiastical use of this term, see primate (religion) Families 13, See classification A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all lemurs, monkeys, and apes, including humans. ... A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are cold-blooded, covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... For other meanings of bird, see bird (disambiguation). ... Orders Subclass Monotremata Monotremata Subclass Marsupialia Didelphimorphia Paucituberculata Microbiotheria Dasyuromorphia Peramelemorphia Notoryctemorphia Diprotodontia Subclass Placentalia Xenarthra Dermoptera Desmostylia Scandentia Primates Rodentia Lagomorpha Insectivora Chiroptera Pholidota Carnivora Perissodactyla Artiodactyla Cetacea Afrosoricida Macroscelidea Tubulidentata Hyracoidea Proboscidea Sirenia The mammals are the class of vertebrate animals primarily characterized by the presence of mammary...

Determiners of the Dominance Hierarchy

It has been postulated that paired interactions alone can not account for the emergence of dominance hierarchies. Such phenomena as the audience effect, the context-dependent audience effect in Betta splendens, the observer effect, and the winner-loser effect^{[citation needed]}, may play important roles in the formation of dominance hierarchies in social groups. The social group forms a complex signaling network: interaction that occur among just two individuals of the group are in turn affected by other signals transmitted by individuals in direct communication with them. Such signaling may be subtle, abbreviated and symbolic. The audience effect is the impact that a passive audience has on a subject performing a task. ... Binomial name Betta splendens (Regan, 1910) The Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) is one of the most popular species of freshwater aquarium fish. ... The observer effect, or observer bias, has any of various context-specific meanings, some of which are related. ...

Individuals with greater hierarchical status tend to displace those ranked lower from access to space, to food and to mating opportunities. Thus, individuals with higher social status tend to have greater reproductive success by mating more often and having more resources to invest in the survival of offspring. Hence it serves as an intrinsic factor for population control, insuring adequate resources for the dominant individuals and thus preventing widespread starvation. Territorial behavior enhances this effect.[1] [2] Sevenspotted Lady Beetles mating In biology, mating is the pairing of opposite-sex or hermaphroditic internal fertilization animals for copulation and, in social animals, also to raise their offspring. ... Social status is the standing, the honour or prestige attached to ones position in society. ... Reproductive success is defined as the passing of genes onto the next generation in a way that they too can pass those genes on. ... In biology, offspring are the product of reproduction, a new organism produced by one or more parents. ... In ethology, sociobiology and behavioral ecology, the term territory refers to any geographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics (and, occasionally, animals of other species). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

These hierarchies are not fixed and depend on any number of changing factors, among them are age, gender, body size, intelligence, and aggressiveness. Status may also be affected by the ability to marshal the support of others. Indeed, the need to maintain social position and social knowledge may be an impetus for the evolution of larger brains in humans and other animals.[3] The effects of ageing on a human face Elderly woman Ageing or aging is the process of systems deterioration with time. ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... Intelligence is the mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and make it easier to understand, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behaviour. ...

Dominance hierarchies, though often more subtle, can be observed in human societies and are important for understanding the organization of family, tribe or clan, work organizations, politics, etc. in normal and abnormal social situations. It is not clear how much of dominance hierarchy in humans is due to the intrinsic biology of our brains, derived from evolution, and how much is due to cultural factors. A family in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by analogous or comparable relationships — including domestic partnership, cohabitation, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as occurred in the... http://www. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individuals innate qualities (nature) versus personal experiences (nurture) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... Culture (Culture from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate,) generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

Dominance relationships require the cooperation of both parties. The dominant party tacitly agrees not to kill or injure the submissive party provided the submitter concedes and does not interfere with the dominant party's access to resources or compete for mates. The ability to identify and remember members of the group along with their dominance status is also necessary. These hierarchies may have developed, in evolutionary terms, for the sake of efficiency and in order to reduce the likelihood of injury among group members who may share genes. As with the case of altruism in animals, the voluntary abbreviation of hostilities into symbolic form remains something of a Darwinian Puzzle. Original book cover from the painting The Expectant Valley by zoologist Desmond Morris The Selfish Gene is a very popular and somewhat controversial book on evolutionary theory by Richard Dawkins, published in 1976. ... Altruism is a well-documented animal behaviour, which appears most obviously in kin relationships but may also be evident amongst wider social groups. ... A Darwinian puzzle is a trait that appears to reduce the fitness of individuals that possess it. ...

Dominance-Charisma Relationship

Many psycologists and others interested in the dominance hierarchy agree that Dominance and Charisma are closely related. The word charisma (from the Greek word χάρισμα (kharisma), gift or divine favor, from kharizesthai, to favor, from kharis, favor: see also charism) refers to a rare trait found in certain human personalities usually including extreme charm and a magnetic quality of personality and/or appearance along with innate and powerfully...

References

Chase I., Tovey C., Spangler-Martin D., Manfredonia M. 2002. Individual differences versus social dynamics in the formation of animal dominance hierarchies. PNAS 99 (9): 5744-5749.

Chase I., Bartolomeo C.,Dugatkin L. 1994. Aggressive interactions and inter-contest interval: how long do winners keep winning?. Animal Behaviour 48 (2): 393-400

Cummins D.D., Dominance Hierarchies and the Evolution of Human Reasoning. Minds and Machines, Volume 6, Number 4, November 1996, pp. 463-480(18)

Oliveira RF, McGregor P. K., Latruffe C. 1998. Know thine enemy: fighting fish gather information from observing conspecific interactions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 265: 1045-1049.

Wilson, E. O. Sociobiology. 2000.

See also

• Sociobiology
• Social organization
• Hierarchical organization
• Evolution of intelligence
• Pecking order

This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A social animal is a loosely defined term for an organism that is highly interactive with other members of its species to the point of having a recognizable and distinct society. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A hierarchy (in Greek hieros = sacred, arkho = rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. ...

Books with this theme

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel