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Dominance Hierarchy

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Peck order; Social dominance hierarchy; Social hierarchy

Definition

Dominance hierarchy is a social structure of a society or a family. Within this structure some individuals are more dominant than others and as such have access to greater (or better) resources (i.e., food, mates, etc.). Dominance hierarchy enables to decrease number of conflicts between individuals because some give way to the others and let them have resources without fighting. This behavior is mostly based on their experience from previous interactions. Moreover, the higher ranking ones restrict the lower ranking individuals.

Introduction

The term dominance hierarchy (McFarland 1981) refers to hierarchical ranking of individuals in a society (in a group, a family, a clan, or a pack). Terms such as social hierarchy, social dominance hierarchy, and peck order (McFarland 1981; Manning and Dawkins 2009; Veselovsky 2005) have similar meaning. The concept of dominance hierarchy is widely used and has been...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, J. E. Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic

    Eva Jozifkova

  2. Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove, Charles University, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

    Martina Kolackova

Authors
  1. Eva Jozifkova
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  2. Martina Kolackova
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eva Jozifkova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Psychology Department, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, USA

    Jessica Hehman

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Jozifkova, E., Kolackova, M. (2020). Dominance Hierarchy. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2534-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2534-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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