Any nature documentary worth its salt contains the classic scene of two males facing off, battling to establish who is the alpha. These battles are important: Across many different species, position ...

It’s surprising that human infants as young as 10 months may be able to identify social rank. Research suggests that infants learn to distinguish who around them is dominant, using relative body size ...

Social hierarchies are everywhere—think of high school dramas, where the athletes are portrayed as the most popular, or large companies, where the CEO makes the important decisions. Such hierarchies ...

New research shows that the more animals know about each other, the more they may be able to optimize their aggression. Humans and animals alike constantly size up one another. In the workplace, a new ...

Social hierarchies are everywhere-think of high school dramas, where the athletes are portrayed as most popular, or large companies, where the CEO makes the important decisions. Such hierarchies ...

The cholinergic interneurons were found to be involved in the loser effect, where mice became less dominant after losing competitions, moving down the social rankings. Surprisingly, these same brain ...