Social Dominance and Hierarchies Quiz

Ordered social structures where individuals acquire power and influence relative to each other.

The motivation to achieve high social standing and recognition.

Crickets adjust their fighting strategies based upon past victories and losses. Those who win more fights tend to be more assertive in later conflicts.

Social rankings often emerge quickly within groups of people, even strangers. In one study, clear hierarchies formed within minutes.

People sometimes wrongly claim military awards or achievements to boost their status and reputation.

Humans across cultures value social standing. They want respect and avoid humiliation.

Status seeking may be a core human motivator, playing a key role in most social interactions.

Humans have evolved strategies to deal with social hierarchies and dominant members within the group.

A strategy where an individual yields to others, avoiding confrontation.

A dominance hierarchy, particularly observed in hens.

The negative consequences, like injury or wasted resources , associated with fighting.

Behaviors that animals have developed over time as the best ways to survive and reproduce.

A characteristic that is not inherent in individual members of a group but arises from how they interact.

Higher-ranking member in a group, often more aggressively assertive.

Data collected through experiments that demonstrates dominance hierarchy formation.

In a dominance hierarchy, if A is dominant over B, and B is dominant over C, then A is also dominant over C.

Resources that are vital for survival and reproduction, such as food, territory, or mates.

The psychological mechanisms used to evaluate one's own fighting abilities and compare them to others.

Behaviors used to make oneself appear more powerful than they actually are, to intimidate opponents.

One function of dominance and submissiveness is to avoid costly fights.

Crayfish establish dominance through physical fights, with the winner becoming dominant in a territory.

When losing a dominance contest, the loser may leave the territory to find better opportunities or wait for a better chance to challenge again.

The neurotransmitter serotonin affects crayfish behavior based on their social status. Dominant crayfish have neurons that are excited by serotonin, while subordinate crayfish have neurons that are inhibited by serotonin.

Subordinate crayfish can readily shift to dominant status when circumstances change. This is reflected in changes in their serotonin-sensitive neurons.

Dominant crayfish are reluctant to transition to subordinate status, even when faced with a stronger opponent, and will continue to fight even to the point of death.

Dominant male chimpanzees assert their status through a variety of behaviors, including strutting, making themselves appear larger, and receiving submissive greetings from others.

Submissive chimpanzees show their deference to a dominant male by performing a series of actions, such as bowing and presenting objects, while making pant-grunts and looking upwards.

Dominant chimpanzees respond to submissive greetings by stretching themselves to appear larger, making their hair stand on end, and potentially even exaggerating their size.

Chimpanzees use exaggerated displays of size and posture to emphasize their dominance, even if they are physically similar in size.

In both crayfish and chimpanzees, social status is not just about physical strength, but also about a series of behavioral and physiological cues that signal dominance and submission.