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This chapter examines the naturally- and sexually-selected consequences of social rank in a population of black-capped chickadees studied for over a decade in eastern Ontario, Canada. The discussion begins with a review of what is known about the characteristics that distinguish individuals attaining high social rank from subordinates. Aspects of status signaling, such as song and plumage features, as well as rank-related differences in survival and annual reproductive success, are explored. Using extensive observations of interactions among color-banded individuals, the process by which dominance hierarchies are maintained is described. The effects of individual variation in rank acquisition on lifetime reproductive success (LRS) are then addressed. Analysis of LRS was used to compare how the overall genetic contribution of individuals is affected by both lifespan and reproductive strategies. Breeding lifespan has been identified as the most important predictor of LRS in mammals and birds; nevertheless the interaction between social rank and LRS may also be significant and warrants investigation.

This chapter reviews recent theory and research on the dual-process cognitive-motivational model of ideology and prejudice. Consistent with a dual-process model perspective, the chapter argues that social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) assess dual ideological attitude dimensions that are made salient for the individual by competitive and dangerous worldviews respectively, which in turn result from the combination of socio-structural factors (resource scarcity, danger, and threat) and individual differences in personality (primarily low agreeableness and low openness to experience). Finally, the chapter extends the model by arguing that SDO and RWA elicit dual ideologies that stratify and position groups based on qualitatively different stereotypic characteristics. A competitively driven motivation (indexed by SDO) should cause the individual to endorse legitimizing myths or ideologies that are explicitly tailored toward maintaining hierarchical relations between groups. A threat-driven security-cohesion motivation (indexed by RWA) should, in contrast, cause the individual to endorse legitimizing myths that emphasize the maintenance of ingroup norms and values. Recent experimental and longitudinal research supporting the model is described.

Social welfare dominance criteria based on critical-level generalized utilitarian social welfare functions are investigated in this chapter. An analogue of a generalized Lorenz curve called a generalized concentration curve is introduced. For a fixed critical utility level c, a quasiordering of utility distributions based on these curves is defined and shown to coincide with the quasiordering obtained by declaring one utility distribution to be weakly preferred to a second if and only if the former is weakly preferred to the latter for all inequality averse critical-level c generalized utilitarian social welfare functions. An extension of this result that allows for a range of critical levels is also established.

This chapter attempts to describe and explain children's social and personality development through an evolutionary lense. It begins by briefly outlining the modern history of evolution and individual differences, including looking at key concepts (e.g., phenotypic plasticity) and using a very promising meta-theoretical perspective (the life history theory). It then reintroduces the construct of “social dominance” and presents arguments to support the critical roles of both prosocial and antisocial behavior in interindividual competition. Third, it sketches out the theoretical (and methodological) implications of social dominance relations for human personality development, and then exemplifies with a theory and body of empirical work exploring children's social dominance relations and the strategies they employ, including a mixed strategy which has been referred to as Machiavellian behavior. The chapter concludes by suggesting that human personality cannot be fully understood without looking towards evolutionary theory.

This chapter argues that the fundamental bond of prowess and honour is strengthened by an assertion of high status. The commendation given to chivalry can be understood without recognizing its bonds with these crucially important social issues. Assertion of a right to social dominance gives another important component to the fusion that made chivalry and gave it such power in medieval society. Over time, knights rose in status and even the nobility decided to wear the chivalric mantle.

Our primate ancestors evolved a complex sociopolitical order based on a social dominance hierarchy in multi-male/multi-female groups. The emergence of bipedalism and cooperative breeding in the hominin line, together with environmental developments which made a diet of meat from large animals fitness enhancing, as well as cultural innovation in the form of fire and cooking, created a niche for hominins in which there was a high return to coordinated, cooperative scavenging or hunting of large mammals. This, in turn, led to the use of stones and spears as lethal weapons. The availability of lethal weapons in early hominin society undermined the standard social dominance hierarchy of multi-male/multi-female primates. The successful sociopolitical structure that replaced the ancestral social dominance hierarchy was a political system in which success depended on the ability of leaders to persuade and motivate. This system persisted until cultural changes in the Holocene fostered the accumulation of material wealth, through which it became possible once again to sustain a social dominance hierarchy, because elites could now surround themselves with male relatives and paid protectors. This scenario suggests that humans are predisposed to seek dominance when this is not excessively costly, but also to form coalitions to depose pretenders to power. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.

This chapter extends classic social comparison research to explain how people think about group-based hierarchies and how they act within them. People spontaneously compare themselves to others in terms of relative status and power, not only as individuals but also as members of groups relative to other groups. Using a social dominance framework, the authors discuss the impact of such comparisons on socio-political attitudes and behavior. Social dominance theory describes how certain attitudes, values, and social practices enhance group hierarchies, whereas other attitudes, values, and social practices are hierarchy-attenuating. Power differentials within any type of group hierarchy are given by the balance between these forces that play out at three levels of analysis: in societal institutions (macro level), in intergroup relations (meso level), and among different individuals (micro level). The authors discuss not only how social comparisons shape hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating outcomes at each level but also how these outcomes, in turn, can mute the natural consequences of group-based power comparisons.

Chapter 4 further explores the development of entitlement. This chapter is divided into two parts as it considers two areas of developmental influence: the peer group and mass media. The chapter begins with a look at the impact of social dominance goals (e.g., establishing power) of the peer group and the degree to which these goals affect peer interaction and disruptive classroom behavior. Homophobic bullying and gender policing are also addressed in this chapter. The price for entitlement is the all-out avoidance of femininity and all-in conformity to male norms. Boys and men may come to see conforming to rigid gender rules as a relatively small price to pay for privilege and entitlement. Sexualized violence is then considered through the lens of entitlement. In some male peer groups, the mistreatment of girls and women is not condemned, but rather it actually helps men gain status within that group. Chapter 4 next considers the influence of media and popular culture on the valuing of dominant groups over subordinated groups. The different representations of gender, race, and sexuality in mass media facilitate entitlement in dominant groups. Finally, the impact of media is considered with a review of experimental and correlational research on how media messages affect viewers.

What does “democracy” mean to people? Do different individuals hold different views about what democracy is or should be? What explains those differences? This chapter looks into these questions and gives an account of the sources and explanations of different understandings of democracy among Europeans. It advances a simple argument based on social dominance theory. Individuals that come to acquire a privileged position in society have an interest in defending the political and institutional status quo. Since “democracy” can be understood in different ways, with some understandings closer to and some further from that status quo, social status and social hierarchies help to determine what version of democracy people come to endorse. In other words, people who enjoy privileged positions in society are more likely than individuals with lower social status to espouse a conception of “democracy” consistent with the political status quo.

This chapter discusses the role of ideology in genocides, beyond the traditional conservatism–liberalism distinction. This chapter analyzes ideological views in greater detail by reviewing established psychological concepts, such as authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, as well as conspiracy theories, racial health ideology, and the concept of Lebensraum that formed the ideological foundation of the Holocaust and other large-scale crimes. Authoritarian ideology accurately explains the behavior of desk killers, bureaucrats responsible for organizing the mass murder. Social dominance ideology seems to give a more general explanation of genocide—it can be found in German social Darwinism, the idea of Lebensraum, the Nazi eugenic program, and the illusions spread by occupiers among the victims and the bystanders. The chapter suggests that deep study of ideologies might provide important insight into perpetrators’ worldviews and into their justifications of criminal acts, as well as an explanation of bystanders’ and victims’ behavior.

Many social interactions are extended over time, with sequences of decisions by the participating individuals. An interaction can include negotiation between partners as well as learning about each other’s characteristics and qualities. The classical game-theoretical concepts of normal- and extensive-form games and perfect and Stackelberg equilibria are described. A model of the negotiation by parents over investments into their joint offspring is presented and discussed, emphasizing the difference between the game with and without time structure. A version of this model where individuals do not negotiate their investments but instead learn about their respective capacities to invest is presented. For this model a cognitive bias can evolve, such that individuals behave as if they overestimate their true cost of investing. The evolution of social dominance behaviour and social hierarchies is then studied, using actor–critic learning with observations of relative fighting ability and individual recognition. A strong effect of social group size on social dominance is one of the results from the analysis. Pairwise contests are then modelled, both using actor–critic learning and as a sequential assessment game, which is shown to correspond to a neural random walk. The chapter ends with a broad discussion of the successes and challenges of games with time structure. Reasons to incorporate behavioural mechanisms into game theory models, using a large-worlds perspective, are presented.

As implied by the statement made by William Watts Ball—editor of The State—World War I signified hope not only for the African American reformers in South Carolina but also for the whites who saw themselves as reformers as well. All of these reformers opted to achieve a progressive South Carolina that would generally develop improved standards of living through a prosperous economy, rehabilitation for prisoners, and other such indicators. However, Ball also pointed out that the whites who perceived themselves as leaders would experience disturbance in spite of how the expected changes would prove to be constructive. The white reformers comprised mainly of middle-class professionals who had a common goal of advancing South Carolina. This chapter illustrates how these white reformers advocated changes that they prescribed and would gain control of as they also attempted to ensure social dominance.

“Reward” explores the personality trait of extraversion in the life of Donald Trump. The chapter begins with an evolutionary account of extraversion’s powerful role in human groups, as a personality trait that enables social actors to attract and hold the attention of others. Studied for over 70 years by personality psychologists, extraversion entails social dominance, gregariousness, and the relentless seeking of reward. Donald Trump is one of the most extraverted human beings on the planet today. The chapter traces the development of this trait in Trump’s life and illustrates how it has served Trump well, infusing tremendous energy and primal charisma into many of his social moments, as he moves from one moment to the next in life. Extraversion is one of five broad and basic traits identified by personality psychologists, often called the Big Five.

This chapter explores the behavioral microfoundations of status dissatisfaction theory by conducting two simultaneously fielded experiments in which status concerns were randomly assigned prior to an “escalation of commitment” task. The first study replicates and extends a sunk costs experiment that asks subjects to make a hypothetical investment decision, while the second introduces the “Island Game” to provide a behavioral measure of escalation of commitment. Several regression models are estimated to determine how leadership affects the tendency to escalate in the primary decision task. The chapter also considers additional mechanisms that link status concerns to war through individuals' willingness to escalate their commitment to a failing course of action, including power and social dominance orientation (SDO). The results show that subjects with stronger preferences for hierarchy—that is, high in SDO—are most affected by status concerns and correspondingly more likely to exhibit patterns of biased escalation.

Drawing on empirical research from psychology, this chapter gives an account of moral grandstanding. Grandstanding is a contribution to public moral discourse that is significantly motivated by the desire that others think one is morally respectable. This chapter then answers several important questions about moral grandstanding. Must grandstanders think they are morally great? Do grandstanders always know that they are trying to impress others? Can grandstanders speak the truth? Does grandstanding work? Is grandstanding just a left-wing problem? And are the authors themselves grandstanding? The chapter concludes by explaining the differences between moral grandstanding and virtue signaling.

The chapter introduces reinforcement learning in game-theory models. A distinction is made between small-worlds models with Bayesian updating and large-worlds models that implement specific behavioural mechanisms. The actor–critic learning approach is introduced and illustrated with simple examples of learning in a coordination game and in the Hawk–Dove game. Simple versions of a game of investments with joint benefits and a social dominance game are presented, and these games are further developed in Chapter 8. The idea that parameters of the learning process, such as learning rates, can evolve is put forward. For the game examples it is shown that with slow learning over many rounds the outcome can approximate an ESS of a one-shot game, but for higher rates of learning and fewer rounds this need not be the case. The chapter ends with an overview of learning approaches in game theory, including the originally proposed relative-payoff-sum learning rule for games in biology.

This chapter reviews the definitions of relational aggression and other subtypes of aggression that are often studied in the developmental sciences. Specifically, definitions of relational, physical, indirect, social, verbal, nonverbal, proactive, and reactive aggression are provided. The modes, forms, functions, and contexts of aggression are reviewed, with a focus on relational aggression. Attention is given to other related constructs such as assertion, rough and tumble play, and social dominance, which should be considered and ruled out when studying subtypes of aggression. A definition and important considerations for the study of relational bullying are provided, and a brief discussion of the contexts of online or electronic aggression is given. Future directions and unanswered questions are raised.