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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Measuring social behavior: social dominance.

Social dominance develops more slowly when young animals are kept in intact peer groups where they need not compete for resources. Learned generalizations may cause smaller and weaker animals to accept subordinate status readily when confronted with strangers that would be formidable opponents. Sexual hormones and sensitivity to them can influence the onset of aggression and status attained. After dominance orders are established, they tend to be stable in female groups but are less so in male groups. Psychological influences can affect dominance relationships when strangers meet and social alliances within groups may affect relative status of individuals. Whether status associated with agonistic behavior is correlated with control of space and scarce resources needs to be determined for each species and each kind of resource. When such correlations exists, competitive tests and agonistic behavior associated with gaining access to scarce resources can be useful to the observer in learning about dominance relationships rapidly. Examples are given to illustrate how estimates of social dominance can be readily attained and some strengths and weaknesses of the various methods.

Aggression↗
PubMed2003

Attitudes toward group-based inequality: social dominance or social identity?

In five studies we explored how the context in which people think about the social structure and the implications of the social structure for one's in-group affect attitudes toward inequality. In Studies 1 and 2 we found that social dominance orientation (SDO) scores reflect attitudes toward specific types of inequality that are salient in context. Consistent with social identity theory, in Studies 3 to 5 we found that SDO scores reflected the interests of specific group identities. Indeed, when we compared existing privileged and disadvantaged groups, and when we manipulated in-group status, we found that participants held more positive attitudes toward inequality when the in-group was privileged, compared to when the in-group was disadvantaged. Across all of our studies, results were consistent with the contention that attitudes toward inequality are group-specific and depend on the social-structural position of salient in-groups. We discuss the implications of our findings for social dominance theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

The finding of an inverse relationship between social dominance and feeding priority among pairs of unfamiliar adult male vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus).

Dominance is often presumed to confer priority of access to resources. This study evaluated the relationship between two assessments of dominance: (1) social dominance, based on agonistic interactions and (2) feeding priority among pairs of unfamiliar adult vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) differing in scrotal colour, but matched for height, weight and testicular volume, during paired introduction experiments. Results of this investigation showed that neither size differences nor scrotal colour were predictive of feeding priority, and social dominance was inversely related to feeding priority. This finding demonstrates that different assessments of dominance can yield different outcomes even within the same primate taxon. I propose that male dominance rank may best predict access to resources when there is direct contest competition over a resource, which is not immediately exhaustible, whereas highly impulsive low ranking males may gain a competitive edge in scramble competitions for ephemeral and small resources.

Aggression↗
PubMed2004

Stress coping style predicts aggression and social dominance in rainbow trout.

Social stress is frequently used as a model for studying the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying stress-induced behavioral inhibition, depression, and fear conditioning. It has previously been shown that social subordination may result in increased glucocorticoid release and changes in brain signaling systems. However, it is still an open question which neuroendocrine and behavioral differences are causes, and which are consequences of social status. Using juvenile rainbow trout of similar size and with no apparent differences in social history, we demonstrate that the ability to win fights for social dominance can be predicted from the duration of a behavioral response to stress, in this case appetite inhibition after transfer to a new environment. Moreover, stress responsiveness in terms of confinement-induced changes in plasma cortisol was negatively correlated to aggressive behavior. Fish that exhibited lower cortisol responses to a standardized confinement test were markedly more aggressive when being placed in a dominant social position later in the study. These findings support the view that distinct behavioral-physiological stress coping styles are present in teleost fish, and these coping characteristics influence both social rank and levels of aggression.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Social dominance orientation and opinions about what is America's most serious social problem.

This study tested whether a measure of Social Dominance Orientation was associated with opinions about America's most serious social problem. 150 undergraduates enrolled in social problems classes responded to the 14-item scale and to an open-ended question, "In your opinion, what is the most serious social problem in our country today?". Analysis shows that mean scale scores differed significantly across social problem responses. Correspondence analysis, plotting association between scale scores and social problem responses, was interpreted as support for social dominance theory. Higher scale scores were associated with problems of crime and negative values and lower scores with problems of education and racism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Splenomegaly and other hematological parameters in the socially dominant mouse.

Within a social dominance hierarchy, subordinate mice show hematological changes such as increased erythropoiesis and splenomegaly. The present experiment demonstrates similar findings for the unwounded dominant mouse. In addition, total serum protein, serum albumin and plasma fibrinogen were measured. Male DBA/2j mice were placed into social triads for three 24 hr periods. The resultant dominant and subordinate mice were compared with isolated control mice. Splenomegaly, thymus involution, decreased hematocrit, and increased fibrinogen levels were found in dominant mice. Subordinate mice demonstrated the same changes to a greater extent, as well as an increased reticulocyte count. Only dominant mice showed a reduction in total serum protein. Wounding-independent processes must be involved in these cellular and non-cellular hematological effects of psychosocial stress.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Social stress in mice: gender differences and effects of estrous cycle and social dominance.

A large discrepancy in the possibility of inducing social stress in the two genders exists. Since generalizations of findings from one sex to the other appear not to be valid, reliable models of social stress in females are needed. We examined the effects of social context in the housing environment, as a possible source of stress, on exploration and anxiety in male and female mice, taking into account the estrous phase for females and the social status for males as additional variables. Mice housed individually or with siblings were tested in a free-exploratory paradigm of anxiety (where test animals have a choice to stay in their home cage or to explore an open field, OF). Individually housed females did not leave their home cage for long periods, explored less the unfamiliar area and displayed higher risk assessment, a behavioral profile suggestive of lower propensity for exploration and higher level of anxiety compared with group-housed females. Individually housed males tended to show an opposite profile. Proestrus mice were less sensitive to the decrease of exploratory propensity induced by individually housing compared to estrus and diestrus mice. Social dominants and social subordinates in sibling groups did not differ in their exploratory responses to the OF. Different housing procedures, as means to provide different social environment, may differentially induce mild social stress in male and female mice.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Androgen levels and female social dominance in Lemur catta.

Morphological and behavioural traits which improve agonistic power are subject to intrasexual selection and, at the proximate level, are influenced by circulating androgens. Because intrasexual selection in mammals is more intense among males, they typically dominate females. Female social dominance is therefore unexpected and, indeed, rare. Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) are sexually monomorphic primates in which all adult females dominate all males. The goal of our study was to test the prediction that female dominance in this species is associated with high androgen levels. Using two captive groups, we collected data on agonistic behaviour and non-invasively assessed their androgen concentrations in faeces and saliva by enzyme immunoassay. We found that adult female L. catta do not have higher androgen levels than males. However, during the mating season there was a twofold increase in both the androgen levels and conflict rates among females. This seasonal increase in their androgen levels was probably not due to a general increase in ovarian hormone production because those females showing the strongest signs of follicular development tended to have low androgen concentrations. At the individual level neither the individual aggression rates nor the proportion of same-sexed individuals dominated were correlated with their androgen levels. We conclude that female dominance in ring-tailed lemurs is neither based on physical superiority nor on high androgen levels and that it is equally important to study male subordination and prenatal brain priming effects for a complete understanding of this phenomenon.

Aggression↗
PubMed1983

Systolic blood pressure during the formation of a social dominance hierarchy in C57BL/6j mice.

Housing male mice in social groups typically results in social dominance hierarchies and elevated systolic blood pressures. An exception to this pattern occurs in the C57BL/6j inbred mouse strain. C57BL/6j male mice, when handled prior to the experiment, tend to display neither social dominance hierarchies nor systolic hypertension. In the present experiment, we found that when C57BL/6j males compete for social dominance, as indicated by wounding, they also show elevations in systolic pressure. The association of social hierarchy and systolic pressure elevation can be found not only in aggressive mouse strains, but also within the more pacific C57BL/6j strain when it is exposed to competition.

Animals↗
PubMed2026

Sex differences in social dominance emerge late in life in a gregarious bird.

Social dominance shapes group structure and the collective behaviour of gregarious animals. Senescence, the progressive physiological deterioration associated with ageing, may influence behaviour, including social dominance, while reproductive roles may lead to different onset times or rates of senescence between the sexes. However, how ageing shapes sex differences in sociality remains poorly understood, largely due to the scarcity of long-term studies comparing male and female social behaviour. To address this gap of knowledge, we monitored dominance hierarchies during foraging in an ageing, semi-natural population of adult common waxbills (Estrilda astrild). Our study lasted 5 years, which is more than most adult waxbills would live in the wild, to facilitate detecting effects of senescence. At the onset of the study, sex differences in dominance were negligible but became pronounced with ageing during breeding seasons. In contrast, sex differences remained weak during non-breeding seasons. Females showed stronger longitudinal and seasonal changes in dominance than males, whose dominance patterns remained more consistent across breeding and non-breeding periods. Nonetheless, social dominance also increased, on average, as the number of years until death decreased. Although sex differences in animal sociality are often thought of as largely fixed, our findings reveal a dynamic pattern in which sex differences in dominance emerge with ageing and are context-dependent, varying across breeding seasons. Overall, our results suggest that senescence and seasonal context shape sociality later in life.

behavioural ageing↗
PubMed1991

Behavioral and hormonal correlates of social dominance in stable and disrupted groups of male domestic fowl.

An experiment was conducted to determine the behavioral and hormonal correlates of social dominance in stable and disrupted groups of male domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus). In addition, the relative importance of visual and auditory cues in the maintenance of dominance status in this species was assessed. Alpha roosters were removed from their six-bird home pens for 1 week, and placed in either (1) and adjacent pen in visual contact with penmates, (2) and adjacent pen where visual, but not auditory, contact was prevented, or (3) a different building where they were in visual and auditory isolation. Dominance rank, aggressive activity, and crowing frequency were intercorrelated during the premove period. There was a significant increase in both aggression and crowing among the males remaining in the home pen following removal of the alpha male, except in the treatment in which males were still in visual contact with the removed alpha, in which only aggression increased. Increases in crowing frequency were also noted in alpha males. High levels of aggression occurred when alpha males were returned except in those pens in which visual contact had been maintained. Visual cues thus appear to be more important than auditory cues alone with respect to the maintenance of dominant social status in roosters. There were no clear correlations between behavioral variables and plasma androgen or corticosterone levels in either the stable or disrupted flocks, and no consistent changes in the levels of these hormones as a result of experimental manipulation; several possible explanations for this finding are discussed.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed2003

Why social dominance theory has been falsified.

Schmitt, Branscombe and Kappen (2003) and Wilson and Lui (2003) present a persuasive series of studies which raise major problems for the conceptualization of social dominance orientation in social dominance theory. Building on these and other data in the literature, this commentary summarizes six fundamental criticisms which can be made of the theory. We conclude that social dominance theory is flawed by conceptual inconsistencies and has been disconfirmed empirically in relation to its key hypothesis of behavioural asymmetry. The reaction of subordinate groups to the social hierarchy is better explained by social identity theory.

Biology↗
PubMed1996

Male testosterone linked to high social dominance but low physical aggression in early adolescence.

BACKGROUND: The association of male pubertal testosterone with social dominance and physical aggression was studied in a population sample of boys followed from age 6 to 13 years to understand the origin of the links between violent behavior and gonadal hormones. METHOD: Physical aggression was assessed from the end of kindergarten to the end of elementary school by teachers and peers (aged 6 to 12 years). Social dominance and testosterone levels were assessed at 13 years of age during a 1-day visit to a laboratory with four unfamiliar peers. RESULTS: Boys perceived as socially dominant by unfamiliar peers were found to have concurrently higher levels of testosterone than boys perceived as less socially dominant. In contrast, boys who had a history of high physical aggression, from age 6 to 12, were found to have lower testosterone levels at age 13 compared with boys with no history of high physical aggression. The former were also failing in school and were unpopular with their peers. CONCLUSIONS: Both concurrent and longitudinal analyses indicated that testosterone levels were positively associated with social success rather than with physical aggression. High testosterone levels in adolescent boys may thus be regarded as a marker of social success in a given context, rather than of social maladjustment as suggested in previous studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Does social dominance generate prejudice? Integrating individual and contextual determinants of intergroup cognitions.

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been proposed as an important variable in the explanation of prejudice. We distinguish between three conceptualizations of SDO: SDO as a personality trait (personality model), SDO as a moderator of the effects of situational variables (Person x Situation model), and SDO as a mediator of the effect of social position on prejudice (group socialization model [GSM]). Four studies (N = 1.657) looking at the relations between social positions, SDO, and prejudice in a natural setting and in a laboratory setting provide strong support for the GSM. In contrast to previous correlational findings, there is evidence of a cause (dominant social position), an effect (prejudice increases), and a mediator (SDO). These results suggest new perspectives on the integration of individual and contextual determinants of prejudice.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Urine marking and social dominance in male house mice (Mus musculus domesticus).

House mice use urine marking for a variety of forms of social communication. Urine marking varies with dominance status; socially dominant male house mice urine mark more than those that are socially subordinate. Experiment I was designed to confirm this previous finding. Experiment II was designed to test whether urine marking, measured prior to testing males for aggression, could be used to predict social dominance. Mice were tested for urine marking in 20 cmx40 cm rectangular cages with filter paper below the wire mesh bottom of the cage. In Experiment I, groups of four males were tested in a round robin design to assess social dominance and were then placed individually in urine marking cages. Social dominance was a significant predictor of the number of 1 cm squares that contained urine marks, both with regard to interior squares and for perimeter squares in the test cage. In Experiment II, groups of four males were first tested individually in urine marking cages and then used for round robin aggressive encounters to assess social dominance. The number of interior squares with urine marks, and, to a lesser extent, the number of perimeter squares with urine marks, were both significant predictors of aggression scores and social dominance status. Being able to judge social dominance without having the mice encounter each other could be a valuable tool for future work; confounding effects on such parameters as hormone levels could be avoided while obtaining an estimate of male social dominance status.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Central nervous system monoamine correlates of social dominance in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).

Social dominance is a fundamental component of both human and nonhuman primate sociality. However, its neurobiological correlates remain incompletely understood. We evaluated the association between dominance status and monoamine metabolite concentrations in cisternal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in adult male (n = 25) and female (n = 21) cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) housed in unisexual social groups. Concentrations of the metabolites of dopamine (homovanillic acid [HVA]), norepinephrine (3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol [MHPG]) and serotonin (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid [5-HIAA]) were assayed. Dominant monkeys, both males and females, had significantly higher CSF HVA concentrations than did subordinates (p values <.05). Among males, but not females, dominants also had lower CSF 5-HIAA than subordinates (p <.05). The Dominance-HVA association observed here is consistent with recent speculation that social extraversion, a dominance-related personality trait in humans, may also reflect heightened central nervous system dopaminergic activity.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Social dominance and serum testosterone concentration in dyads of male Macaca fascicularis.

The relationship between social dominance and serum testosterone concentration was evaluated in 24 male Macaca fascicularis in 14 dyads at 2-week intervals over an 8-month period. No associations between testosterone concentration and dominance ranks were found in dyads with "clear dominance" relationships. A significant positive association was found between testosterone concentration and dominance ranks in dyads that exhibited "contested dominance" or dominance reversals. Thus, higher testosterone concentration corresponded to social dominance in subjects dominant as the result of a contest, rather than a consequence of high relative rank.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Endocrine and behavioral responses to aggression and social dominance in the green anole lizard, Anolis carolinensis.

Adult males of the small arboreal iguanid lizard, Anolis carolinensis, will fight and form social dominance hierarchies when placed in habitats with limited resources. The relationships between time since initial aggressive interaction, relative social dominance, reproductive activity, and corticosterone and androgen levels were determined for 34 pairs of lizards. A discriminant analysis established a "dominance index" which indicated that over 90% of the difference between individuals who had won or lost aggressive interactions (putative social dominants and subordinates) was attributable to a single discriminant function reflecting altered body color, perch site selection, and circulating androgen. Animals that had darker body color also selected lower perch sites and had depressed rates of courtship relative to winners of fights and were thus designated as social subordinates. These animals also had levels of circulating androgen significantly lower than that of dominants, but circulating corticosterone was not significantly affected. Winners of fights showed a dramatic surge in circulating androgen at 1 hr but returned to near control values by 1 week; losers, however, showed depressed circulating androgen levels at 1 week.

Aggression↗