Synonyms
Definition
A social structure in which some individuals have priority of access to resources relative to others.
Introduction
In most species (including humans), competition and cooperation among members of a social group produces a complex social structure called a status (or dominance) hierarchy in which some individuals have regular priority of access to resources and fertile mates in competitive situations. These individuals are referred to as high status (or high ranking). Individuals who have lower priority of access are called subordinate or low status. In its most developed form, the dominance hierarchy is transitive, meaning that if A has priority over B and B has priority over C, then A has priority over C and so on.
Because of their privileged access to resources, higher-status individuals are less likely to die of predation or starvation and more likely to leave living offspring. Among species in which status is unstable, the level of reproductive...
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Cummins, D.D. (2021). Status and Dominance Hierarchies. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_2968
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