Definition
Adaptations for navigating social hierarchies are the evolved behavioral traits, cognitive and social skills, and emotions (reflected in human brain structure) that facilitate social hierarchies. They are manifested in hierarchical social categorization, dominance, prestige, or leadership motive systems for attaining and maintaining high social rank and verbal and nonverbal symbols signaling status.
Introduction
A hierarchical organization of social relations is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom (including among humans). This is a starting point for considering the issue of adaptations for navigating social hierarchies in human society. Based on that, the representatives of the humanities and social science analyze the common evolutionary mechanisms of the origin of such adaptations, namely, evolved behavioral and mental traits (strong associates with...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Bastardoz, N., & Van Vugt, M. (2019). The nature of followership: Evolutionary analysis and review. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 81–95.
Cheng, J. T., & Tracy, J. L. (2014). Toward a unified science of hierarchy: Dominance and prestige are two fundamental pathways to human social rank. In J. T. Cheng, J. L. Tracy, & C. Anderson (Eds.), The psychology of social status (pp. 3–27). New York: Springer Science + Business Media.
Cheng, J. T., Tracy, J. L., & Henrich, J. (2010). Pride, personality, and the evolutionary foundations of human social status. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 334–347.
Cheng, J. T., Tracy, J. L., Ho, S., & Henrich, J. (2016). Listen, follow me: Dynamic vocal signals of dominance predict emergent social rank in humans. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 536–547.
Henrich, J., & Gil-White, F. J. (2001). The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22(3), 165–196.
Hopcroft, R. (2015). Sex differences in the relationship between status and number of offspring in the contemporary U.S. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 146–151.
King, A. J., Johnson, D. D. P., & Van Vugt, M. (2009). The origins and evolution of leadership. Current Biology, 19(19), R911–R916.
Koski, J., Xie, H., & Olson, I. R. (2015). Understanding social hierarchies: The neural and psychological foundations of status perception. Social Neuroscience, 10(5), 527–550.
Li, N. P., van Vugt, M., & Colarelli, S. M. (2017). The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis: Implications for psychological science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(1), 38–44.
Maner, J. K. (2017). Dominance and prestige: A tale of two hierarchies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(6), 526–531.
Maner, J. K., & Case, C. R. (2016). Dominance and prestige: dual strategies for navigating social hierarchies. In J. L. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 54, pp. 129–180). London: Elsevier.
Massey-Abernathy, A. R., & Haseltine, E. (2019). Power talk: Communication styles, vocalization rates and dominance. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48(1), 107–116.
Qu, C., Ligneul, R., Van der Henst, J.-B., & Dreher, J.-C. (2017). An integrative interdisciplinary perspective on social dominance hierarchies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(11), 893.
Steckler, C. M., & Tracy, J. L. (2014). The emotional underpinnings of social status. In J. T. Cheng et al. (Eds.), The psychology of social status. New York: Springer Science+Business Media.
Suessenbach, F., Loughnan, S., Schönbrodt, F., & Moore, A. B. (2019). The dominance, prestige, and leadership account of social power motives. European Journal of Personality, 33, 7–33.
Tracy, J. L., Cheng, J. T., Robins, R. W., & Trzesniewski, K. (2009). Authentic and hubristic pride: The affective core of self-esteem and narcissism. Self and Identity, 8, 196–213.
Tracy, J. L., Shariff, A. F., & Cheng, J. T. (2010). A naturalist’s view of pride. Emotion Review, 2(2), 163–177.
van der Kooij, M., & Sandi, C. (2015). The genetics of social hierarchies. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2, 52–57.
Van Vugt, M. (2006). Evolutionary origins of leadership and followership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 354–371.
Van Vugt, M., Johnson, D. D., Kaiser, R., & O’Gorman, R. (2008). Evolution and the social psychology of leadership: The mismatch hypothesis. In C. L. Hoyt, G. R. Goethals, & D. R. Forsyth (Eds.), Leadership at the crossroads (Leadership and psychology, Vol. 1, pp. 262–282). Westport: Praeger.
Witkower, Z., Tracy, J. L., Cheng, J. T., & Henrich, J. (2019). Two signals of social rank: Prestige and dominance are associated with distinct nonverbal displays. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000181.
Zitek, E. M., & Tiedens, L. Z. (2012). The fluency of social hierarchy: The ease with which hierarchical relationships are seen, remembered, learned, and liked. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(1), 98–115.
Acknowledgment
This text is a result of work as part of the research project funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the government of Ulyanovsk region of the Russian Federation, grant № 18-411-730014 (р_а).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Shkurko, Y. (2020). Adaptations for Navigating Social Hierarchies. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1764-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1764-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences