Behaviour may contribute to changes in fitness prospects with age, for example through effects of age-dependent social dominance on resource access. Older individuals often have higher dominance rank, which may reflect a longer lifespan of dominants and/or an increase in social dominance with age. In the latter case, increasing dominance could mitigate physiological senescence. We studied the s...

Social hierarchies are omnipresent in the lives of many species. The ability to successfully navigate complex social environments with consideration of the relative rank of conspecifics is an essential skill not only for humans, but also for numerous other social beings. From maintaining rank and reducing conflict, to communication and reproduction, organisms of varying complexity rely on socia...

Social status in randomly constituted groups of male CFLP mice was predictable from early suckling behaviour and rate of weight gain in natal litters. High-ranking males were those that had suckled on more anterior teats and gained weight more quickly. Rank was not predicted by any measures of sibling interaction or hormone (testosterone, corticosterone) concentration. Aggressiveness in eventua...

In many group-living animals dominant individuals occupy the center of a group. This is generally thought to reflect a preference for locations, that provide optimal protection against predators. However, in this paper I will show that such spatial-structure also emerges among artificial entities that lack preference for any spatial location. The artificial entities dwell in a homogeneous world...

! Abstract Dominance hierarchies exist in numerous social species, and rank in such hierarchies can dramatically influence the quality of an individual’s life. Rank can dramatically influence also the health of an individual, particularly with respect to stress-related disease. This chapter reviews first the nature of stress, the stressresponse and stress-related disease, as well as the varieti...

Social rank theory suggests that mood variation is linked to the security a person feels in his/her social domain and the extent to which they are sensitive to involuntary subordination (e.g. feeling defeated and feeling inferior). Previous studies looking at rank-related and competitive behaviour have often focused on striving for dominance, whereas social rank theory has focused on striving t...