dominance hierarchy
Social ranking system
A dominance hierarchy is a ranking system within a group where some individuals have priority access to resources, mates, or decision-making over others.
The term comes from animal behavior studies—wolves, chickens, primates—but applies to human organizations too: The office has an unspoken dominance hierarchy.
Also called a pecking order.
- pecking orderSocial dominance arrangement
- pecking atBiting repeatedly, lightly
- submissionYielding to another's will
- alphaFirst Greek letter
- alpha maleDominant group leader
caste system · matriarchy · aggression · beta · chain of command · top brass · rank order · territoriality · king of the hill · power dynamics · power struggle · pack behavior · assertiveness · omega · bottom of the barrel · social stratification · feudalism · competitiveness
- hierarchiestier, tiers, level, levels, rank
- matingmating, breeding, courtship display, mating display, mating dance
- pecking orderpecking order, alpha, beta, omega, submissive
- social hierarchycaste system, caste, class, class system, ranks
- Sociobiologysociobiology, natural selection, sexual selection, altruism, mating strategies
- primatesape, apes, baboon, baboons, monkey
dominance hierarchyegalitarianism
Philosophy of universal equality
equality · anarchism · peer network · egalitarian society · collective
dominance hierarchyconsensus
General group agreement
direct democracy · participatory democracy · self-governance · grassroots organization