Status, Prestige and Social
Dominance
Nicole Thurston
Objectives
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Learn about status, prestige, and social
dominance
Learn how these relate today and how they
applied to our ancestors
Learn about non-human behaviors
Think critically about questions involving our
social interactions and how/if our interactions
apply to the evolutionary perspective
To have fun! 
Humans are Social Beings
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Social interactions
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Large potential fitness
Large potential fitness costs
Limits on the size of an individuals social
network means some social interactions
preclude others
Costs may be enacted when benefits of
sociality are threatened
Development of Hierarchies
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All-out fighting
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Do you think there are any positive outcomes to
fighting?
Selection favors the assessment of abilities
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Complex process which involves socialization, allies, etc.
Dominance hierarchies
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Foolish strategy for humans
Costs for victor
Costs for loser
Secure access to resources
Production hierarchies
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People working together to achieve a group goal
Status and Dominance Hierarchies
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Fisek and Ofshe, 1970
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Groups of people previously unknown to each
other
50% developed clear hierarchy w/in 1 minute
Other 50% in 5 minutes
Members of groups can assess future status
w/in a new group just by looking at other
members
Study of tennis players
(Kalma, 1991)
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Non-human Hierarchies
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“Pecking Order”
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Crayfish
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Hens
Size up their rivals
Change in nervous system
Reluctance to go from dominance to
subordinance
Chimpanzees
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Submissive acts – grunts, kissing, bring gifts
Dominant male makes himself appear larger
Dominant male also has increased sexual access
Important to note: Hierarchies are not static, nor are they based on size of primate.
http://www.wildchimps.org/wcf/suedgruppe/videoclip.htm
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chimpanzee+socializing
Status Hierarchies in Adolescence
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Priority of access to resources in competitive situations
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School shootings
“The jocks rule the school…”
“Are they going to accept me?”
“It’s a rat race inside the school to see who’s
going to be more popular.”
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Columbine Clip
Why did they do it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFdqXxv4vsM
Status Hierarchies in Adolescence
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Hormonal change
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Triggers aggression and risky behaviors in
adolescent boys
Physical maturity / Economic immaturity
 Teenage male frustrations are a new concept
 Aggressive energy is needed to meet challenges
of entering adult life
Do you think recent adolescent crimes are due
to a lack of economic maturity and a desire
to gain status in the world?
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Status Seeking
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Willingness to take risks
Necessary in status competition
“A race car driver at the 24-hour LeMans race, when
asked why he always drove his car right at the
edge of a curve, inches from death, replied that if
you don’t drive that way, you lose the race.” (Bridgeman, p.
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190)
Do all high status individuals take
some sort of risk to get where they
are today…or are there other
factors that may contribute to
status?
How did you develop your status?
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Born into classes?
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Do you actively seek
your status?
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Caste System – Hindus
A Place in the Sun
Clip – The New Guy
Is it that easy to gain status?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KQQvz3MP64
Specific Physiological Mechanisms
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Neuroendocrine responses to challenge
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Autonomic Nervous System releases Cortisol &
Adrenaline
Competitive games (player or observer)
SES and neuroendocrine activity
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Perceived social status compared to others
Higher baseline cortisol levels, more sensitive
stress response during conflict
Therefore…
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Neuroendocrine responses are bidirectional
Perceived social status influences hormone levels
Hormone levels change an individual’s perceived social status
and their interaction with the world
AIDS
Schizophrenia
Status and Health
(Buss, 2005)
Infectious disease and disability
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Results in disgust and avoidance of unhealthy individuals
Costs of failing to ID health threats
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Leads to human bias in the direction of overperception of
threat
Mechanism designed to protect people from contagion.
From an EP this makes sense. However, what about
individuals who choose to work with the disabled
and chronically ill? (Rehabilitators, Doctors…)
Sex Differences in Status Striving
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MUCH more prevalent among men than women
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Direct relationship between status and reproductive
success
Ceiling for male reproduction is much higher than for
women
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Stronger selection pressure to succeed in reproduction
Investment in pregnancy and lactation
Female reproduction is limited by access to resources
Male reproduction is limited by access to mates
Sex Differences in Status Striving
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Buss suggests that high status women may also
maintain higher reproductive advantages.
Do you agree?
Would lower status
men find higher status
women more
intimidating?
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A Polygamy reversal
Status = Access to Mates
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Nobles, Princes, etc.
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Harems of Women
Middle Class men
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3-4 women
In Western cultures where monogamy & higher
status women are present, high-status men are still
preferred as mates and partners in affairs. (Baker & Bellis,
1995; Perusse, 1993)
Any thoughts as to why this might be?
Preference for Dominant Males
Research by Bereczkei et al., 1997
 Women prefer altruistic males for longterm mates
 Women prefer brave, non-altruistic, risk-prone
males for short-term mates
 Females found dominant males to be very
sexually attractive, but men did not find
dominance in females to be sexually attractive
In a way this seems to perpetuate a gender role
society.
Dominance Motivation
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)
(Pratto, Sidanius, & Stallworth, 1993)
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A scale which described preference for social
hierarchies
Those who score high on scale endorse group
dominance over other groups
SDO should be higher in men
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Access to Women
Women select for men with high SDO
Social Dominance Orientation
From an evolutionary perspective, it makes
sense that ancestral women would prefer a
mate with a higher SDO. Why do these
results reign true today, even in egalitarian
cultures?
How do you exert your
authority?
Gender Differences in Expression of
Dominance
Prosocial Dominant Acts versus Egoist
Dominant Acts
 Women think Prosocial Dominant Acts are
more socially desirable
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And actually performed more of these tasks
Whereas…
 Men think Egoist Dominant Acts are more
socially desirable
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And actually performed more of these tasks
Continuation of this study by
Megargee (1969)
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Paired high-dominant man/low-dominant man
Paired high-dominant woman/low-dominant
woman
Paired high-dominant man/low-dominant
woman
Paired high-dominant man/low-dominant man
Participants of groups were told they had to work
together to repair a box given to them as
quickly as possible
Results – Who became the leader?
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75% high-dom. men and 70% women emerged
as leaders with their same sex
20% high-dom. men when paired with lowdom. women emerged as leaders
Only 20% high-dom. women when paired with
low-dom. men emerged as leaders
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WHY?
Appointing of position – group oriented goals
How do these gender differences in
leadership and dominance play a role
in today’s society?
How about from an evolutionary
perspective?
Relational Aggression
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Women may express social dominance in a
less overt, less physical, and more emotional
way
Men express social dominance
in more physical and overt
ways
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Laguna Beach clip
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Ksl79V5po&search=Laguna%20Beach
Dominance Theory
Selection favors dominance, but also favors
subordinate strategies to displace the dominant
person
Dominance Theory has two main propositions
1. There are social norms regarding permissions,
obligations, and prohibitions
2. These emerge before reasoning strategies
 Deontic versus indicative reasoning
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Dominance Theory
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Allows children to organize transitive dominance
hierarchies
A > B > C …A is greater than C
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Social reasoning is strongly influenced by rank
Evolved selective attention and memorial storage
mechanisms
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“Cheater” Study
What are the benefits of these mechanisms?
Dominance Theory
Other studies
 Anger or frustration increases blood pressure
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Aggression towards person who caused anger
leads to decrease in BP if the person is low status
If the person who caused your anger is higher in
status, you BP will remain high
Any thoughts as to why, physiologically, this
happens?
Social Attention-Holding Theory
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An emotional component of dominance
Resource-holding potential
Evaluation of yourself
 Results in attacking, submitting, or fleeing
In this sense, dominance is a relationship not
something possessed by one individual.
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Social attention-holding potential
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Competition for quality and quantity of attention
from others
Emotions
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Going up in rank
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Elation
Increase in helping behavior
Loss of status
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Shame – bodily movements coincide with feelings
Rage – justifies retaliation
Envy – emulate someone (positive manifestation)
or belittle your idol (negative manifestation
Depression – may result in submissiveness
Indicators of Dominance
Dominant individuals Stand at full height, don’t smile often, speak in
a loud voice
 For men, a faster walking pace means higher
status
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Evolutionary perspective
Are usually tall or are perceived as being tall
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Higher salary
Other correlates of dominance
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Athleticism
Intelligence
Physical attractiveness
Humorousness
Good grooming
*A broad theory of the determinants of dominance is
needed to better understand why some people are
valued more than others.
Self-Esteem
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Sociometer Theory
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Serves as a gauge for other’s evaluations
From an evolutionary perspective, since humans
evolved in groups, self-esteem provided a way to
track the degree one was accepted by others
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Motivational mechanism
Provides accurate self-assessments
Submissiveness
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The idea of deceiving down
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Actual reduction in self-esteem to help facilitate
acting in a subordinate manner
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Adaptive mechanism to avoid threats from the dominant
Allows one to bide their time until a more opportune
moment to seek a higher status arises
The Downfall of “Tall Poppies”
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Experiencing pleasure in another’s misfortune
Pleasure is felt when the status of a poppy is made
salient, especially if the low-status individual has
low self-esteem