Dominance

Cooperation in economic games breaks down in the absence of enforcement mechanisms. We show that in the Public Goods Game, cooperation can be sustained by altruistic pun- ishment, but not reward. Voluntary leadership occurs fre- quently in both conditions, but does not affect the dynamics of contributions and enforcement. While pro-socially punishing leaders are perceived as fairer than anti-social leaders, they have a worse reputation than pro-socially rewarding leaders. Thus punishment appears to carry a reputational penalty even when it is pro-social. Contradicting predictions from indirect reciprocity theory, this provides some support for altruistic punishment as strong reciprocity.

Socioecological theory suggests a link between the strength of competition for food/safety, rates of agonism, structure of dominance hierarchies, and dispersal among group-living females. This study presents preliminary data on agonistic behavior and dominance relationships for female Phayre's leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus phayrei), a species in which females routinely disperse. Behavioral observations were conducted on two groups (four adult females, and five adult females plus two juvenile females, respectively) at Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, northeast Thailand. Rates of agonistic behavior were analyzed from focal continuous recordings, while dominance hierarchies were constructed from all agonistic behaviors (focal and ad libitum sampling). Overall, female–female agonistic behaviors (aggression, submission, and displacements) occurred at a rate of <0.25 interactions per hour. Agonistic interactions involving food occurred more frequently than expected based on feeding time. Females in both groups exhibited linear dominance hierarchies with some reversals, and possibly an age-inversed hierarchical structure in the larger group. The results fit well with previous results for colobine monkeys regarding frequency of interactions, displacements predominating agonistic behavior, and the possibility of an age-inversed hierarchy. The results contradict the suggested link between linearity of hierarchies and female philopatry. Future studies should consider the notion that female dispersal may coexist with linear dominance hierarchies. Am. J. Primatol. 64:351–357, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Third party punishment can be evolutionarily stable if there is heterogeneity in the cost of punishment or if punishers receive a reputational benefit from their actions. A dominant position might allow some individuals to punish at a lower cost than others and by doing so access these reputational benefits. Three vignette-based studies measured participants' judgements of a third party punisher in comparison to those exhibiting other aggressive/dominant behaviours (Study 1), when there was variation in the success of punishment (Study 2), and variation in the status of the punisher and the type of punishment used (Study 3). Third party punishers were judged to be more likeable than (but equally dominant as) those who engaged in other types of dominant behaviour (Study 1), were judged to be equally likeable and dominant whether their intervention succeeded or failed (Study 2), and participants believed that only a dominant punisher could intervene successfully (regardless of whether punishment was violent or non-violent) and that subordinate punishers would face a higher risk of retaliation (Study 3). The results suggest that dominance can dramatically reduce the cost of punishment, and that while individuals can gain a great deal of reputational benefit from engaging in third party punishment, these benefits are only open to dominant individuals. Taking the status of punishers into account may therefore help explain the evolution of third party punishment.

This chapter opens with a brief account of three meta-analyses of studies of the effects of background music, one of which looks specifically at its effects in retail settings. It next outlines the main theoretical explanations of these effects, namely the effects of music on physiological arousal, on the priming of certain thoughts and associations, and on its influence through its emotional effects. It also considers a fourth mechanism identified in some of the authors’ own recent research on the effects of the listener’s degree of dominance and control over the music. The remainder of the chapter is a brief review, largely based on the authors’ own work, of three main areas of research on music and consumer behavior, namely that on the perception of the commercial environment, on product choice and musical fit, and on the speed of activity and time perception.

Interpersonal conflict, a process involving perceptions of differences and opposition, is often an undesired but inevitable consequence of interaction between individuals. Multiple goals (internal representations of desired states) can be present in interpersonal conflict. Past studies identify four major categories of conflict-related goals: content goals, relationship goals, identity goals, and process goals; the last three may be classified together as social goals. Several hypotheses were tested in an online experiment in which adult members of evangelical churches (N = 276) imagined themselves in various church-related conflict situations. Participants were assigned to one of two conditions; in one condition, participants read scenarios where their content goals were achieved and in the other condition, participants read scenarios where their content goals were not achieved. Each participant read a series of three scenarios involving the different types of social goals. For each of the three scenarios, they imagined how satisfied they would be with two different outcomes. In the first outcome, in addition to achieving or not achieving their content goal (depending on the condition), they did not achieve the social goal that was made salient (e.g., the relationship is damaged or they lose face); in the second outcome, they achieved this social goal. In addition, participants completed individual difference measures of dominance, sociability, face threat sensitivity, and justice sensitivity. This study found support for the hypothesis that the achievement of each type of conflict-related goal leads to greater satisfaction with the conflict outcome than not achieving the goal. It also found support for the hypothesis
that the achievement of two conflict-related goals (specifically, a content goal and a social goal) interact to lead to greater satisfaction with the conflict outcome beyond the main effects of achieving each goal individually. Additionally, this study tested hypotheses that individual differences (dominance, sociability, face threat sensitivity, and justice sensitivity) moderate the relationship between conflict-related goal achievement and conflict outcome satisfaction. Support was only found for the hypothesis that individuals higher in sociability report greater differences in satisfaction when their relationship goals are achieved (relative to not achieved) than those who score lower in sociability. The results imply that, when both a content goal and a social goal are present, disputants are especially satisfied when both goals are achieved. Exploratory analyses also indicated females, younger adults, and people with greater church involvement responded more strongly to achieving goals than males, older adults, and those with less church involvement. This information can be used by disputants, negotiators, and mediators who are concerned about maximizing joint outcomes.

Costly 'altruistic' punishment, where an individual intervenes to punish someone for behaving unfairly towards another or for violating a social norm, seems to be vital for large-scale cooperation. However, due to the costs involved, the evolution of this behaviour has remained a puzzle. The thesis initially describes why punishment is costly and explains why current theories do not sufficiently explain its evolution in the context of these costs. The thesis then offers a solution to this puzzle in the form of a dominance-based theory of the evolution of punishment. The theoretical underpinnings of this theory are discussed in reference to the previous literature, specifically how a dominant position provides sufficient heterogeneity in the cost and benefits of punishment to allow the behaviour to evolve at the individual-level of selection.

Across 10 studies, the thesis empirically investigates the role dominance is theorised to play in costly punishment behaviour. First, the judgements observers make about punishers are investigated. It is demonstrated that punishers are perceived as dominant but, unlike individuals who engage in other aggressive behaviours, punishers are also well liked. While successful punishers are judged to be of the highest rank in a social group, the wider social judgements of punishers are dependent on the attempt at punishment only; successful and unsuccessful punishers are seen as equally dominant and well liked, suggesting that the willingness to attempt punishment can honestly signal both dominance and ones pro-sociality. However, additional studies show that observers a) perceive subordinate punishers will face a great deal of retaliation, b) show surprise when subordinates attempt to punish, and c) expect that dominants will punish and be successful, whereas subordinates are expected to never punish. Thus, while there are reputational benefits from punishment, only dominant individuals can actually access them.

Second, the effect of a dominant position on punishment behaviour is investigated. Two studies sought to simulate the greater access to resources that dominants enjoy, and demonstrate that individuals who receive more resources from group-level cooperation will punish free-riding more frequently and more severely than those who receive less resources. Moreover, individuals who are in a stable dominant position, i.e. who can continually benefit to a greater degree than others from group cooperation, punish even more frequently and severely than when individuals receive additional resources alone. The results show that individuals only punish when it is cheap for them to do so and when investment in the public good (by punishing) can produce higher future returns for them. A dominant position provides the opportunity for both of these. Further studies demonstrate that individuals at the centre of a social network, an example of a ‘real life’ informal dominant position, are more sensitive to unfairness when making punishment decisions compared to those at the periphery of a group. However, when punishment decisions are public, and there are no economic incentives to punish, individuals behave in a similar manner regardless of social position.

Taken together, the results of the empirical studies support the proposed dominance-theory of costly punishment. The theoretical implications of the dominance-theory of punishment are discussed in reference to both the proximate occurrence of punishment and its evolutionary origins in dominance and dominant behaviours. The practical implications of this theory will also be discussed, specifically in regard to when and why individuals will act in defence of the public good. While futher investigation is necessary, a dominance-theory of punishment explains both results of this thesis and the findings of the wider literature, and as such provides a coherent and compelling explanation for the evolution of  costly punishment and its associated emotions

Location of full thesis TBA

Previous research suggests that people’s perceptions of own-sex individuals can change according to within-individual variation in their romantic partners’ sexual strategies. For example, men are more likely to perceive other men’s faces as looking particularly dominant during the fertile phase of their partner’s menstrual cycle, when women tend to be more open to uncommitted sexual relationships. By contrast, little is known about how relatively stable between-individuals differences in partners’ openness to uncommitted sexual relationships (i.e., their sociosexual orientation) predict perceptions of own-sex individuals. The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) assesses individuals’ openness to uncommitted sexual relationships and shows high test–retest reliability over long periods of time. Consequently, we tested whether the SOI-R scores of men and women in heterosexual romantic couples predicted their perceptions of own-sex faces displaying exaggerated sex-typical cues. Men’s, but not women’s, SOI-R was positively correlated with the extent to which both the man and woman within a couple ascribed high dominance and attractiveness to own-sex faces with exaggerated sex-typical cues. In other words, individuals in couples where the man reported being particularly open to uncommitted sexual relationships were more likely to ascribe dominance and attractiveness to own-sex individuals displaying a putative cue of good phenotypic condition. These findings suggest that both men’s and women’s perceptions of potential competitors for mates are sensitive to the male partner’s sexual strategy. Such individual differences in perceptions may benefit men’s ability to compete for extra-pair and/or replacement mates and benefit women’s mate guarding behaviors.

"Osnovni cilj ovog rada je prikazati važnija istraživanja nastalih kao rezultat nastojanja identifikovanja strukture ličnosti subhumanih vrsta. Biće predstavljeni nalazi studija o: šimpanzama (Pan), gorilama (Gorilla), rezus majmunima (Macaca mulatta), svinjama (Sus), domaćim psima (Canis lupus familiaris) i mačkama (Felis catus), pacovima (Rattus) i miševima (Mus). Nadalje, biće opisana metodologija utvrđivanja njihovih bihevioralnih obrazaca i reakcija koje upućuju na eventualne individualne razlike unutar svake od vrsta, te među vrstama. Prodiskutovaće se o pokušajima psihologa-istraživača da izdvojene karakteristike podvedu pod crte ličnosti pretpostavljene Petofaktorskim modelom.
Nalazi dostupnih istraživanja ukazuju na relativnu univerzalnost ekstraverzije vs. introverzije, saradljivosti (ugodnosti) vs. antagonizma i neuroticizma vs. emocionalne stabilnosti kod subhumanih vrsta. S druge strane, kod viših primata je identifikovana i savjesnost, kao posebna osobina ličnosti, što ide u prilog pretpostavci da je ova osobina evoluciono ''najmlađa''. Takođe, kod nekih vrsta su primijećene naznake otvorenosti za nova iskustva (istraživanje okoline i radoznalost). Istraživale su se i druge karakteristike ličnosti, kao što su dominacija (borba za što više mjesto u socijalnoj hijerarhiji: samouvjerenost, asertivnost i teritorijalnost) i aktivnost (dinamičnost), koje se kod nekih vrsta izdvajaju kao posebne crte, u odnosu na ekstraverziju kojoj izvorno pripadaju u Petofaktorskom modelu.
Zaključci će biti koncipirani uzimajući u obzir interdisciplinarnu spregu: etologije, sociobiologije, evolucione psihologije i zoopsihologije.
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