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Dominance in Humans

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Status; Social status; Prestige

Definition

Dominance is the rank of an individual relative to conspecifics, which predicts the outcomes of social interactions and has consequences for access to resources and influence.

Introduction

An individual’s rank relative to its conspecifics is a predictor of behavior, health, and reproductive output across the animal kingdom. When talking about animal societies, this is typically described in terms of dominance rank, which is determined by the outcome of contests for access to resources such as food or mates. In humans, the picture is far more complex and dominance is the product not only of direct physical contests between individuals (“physical dominance”) but of prestige, group membership (e.g., based on gender or ethnicity), and situation within large-scale “formal hierarchies” such as socioeconomic status.

Dominance in Humans

Wherever social groups exist, a dominance hierarchy will inevitably emerge, with unequal access to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Science, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK

    F. R. Moore, C. Starkey & J. Benjamin

Authors
  1. F. R. Moore
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  2. C. Starkey
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  3. J. Benjamin
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to F. R. Moore , C. Starkey or J. Benjamin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Moore, F.R., Starkey, C., Benjamin, J. (2016). Dominance in Humans. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1421-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1421-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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