Behaviors that manifest social status within a hierarchy are basic to animal interactions. Stability in a group involves interactions that fine-tune social status. A dominant human is bold and aggressive, will stand tall and gesture strongly. A submissive human is meek and passive and will lower his gaze, lower his head, crouch or otherwise become smaller.

We have recognized that spoken language plays a decisive role in maintain and changing social status. Polite talk maintains the peace when everybody obeys the rules of appropriate speech.

When strangers meet, the exchange of greeting behaviors establishes status. Equal strangers are polite and non-aggressive; they exchange standard greetings and converse about neutral subjects such as the weather.  If their conversation continues, both will attempt to establish dominance over the other. Unequal strangers will show status-specific behaviors with degrees of dominance and submission. Conflict arises when one of the strangers behaves inappropriately.

Deference is the antidote to conflict. In well-organized social situations status is recognized and conspicuously displayed so that there are few opportunities for inappropriate encounters.

Dominant humans can command subordinates and will punish disobedience. Group dynamics always involves the interplay of demands and compliance with demands. There is inevitable tension in all groups since the task of dominant ones is to maintain superiority and the task of submissive ones is to challenge dominance with the hope of improving social status and access to resources and privileges.

There is a deep tendency to prefer dominance. Whenever possible, a human will seek advantages that will improve his or her status. Thus, it is better to have a bigger salary, a bigger house, a bigger car and a bigger dog.  If you want to sell something in a competitive market, just claim newer, bigger and better.  A product or service that offers competitive advantage, if believable, is irresistible.

Occasional confrontations interrupt the social order and sometimes allow submissive individuals to improve their social status, through alliances, gift giving, sexual favors and by fighting against authority.  Kudryavtseva stated: “Agonistic (competitive) behavior includes the manifestations of aggression and submissiveness by individuals in conflict situations and is a universal form of behavior found in animals of different species. The sensory contact model allows aggressive and submissive (inhibited, suppressed) types of behavior to be formed in male mice as a result of acquisition of repeated experience of social conquests or defeats. Experience of aggression is accompanied by  activation of the dopaminergic systems in the victors. Experience of social defeat leads to changes in the state of the serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems of various parts of the brains of the defeated animals. Significant differences in emotional expression, movement activity, investigative activity, communicative ability, alcohol consumption, and many physiological aspects were found in animals of opposite social groups.“ 

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Emotions and Feelings

A Psychology & Philosophy series of books was developed by Persona Digital. The books are copyright and all rights to reproduction by any means are reserved. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Emotions and Feelings 2011, published online, and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books, Sechelt, B.C. Canada.