The DOI matches its Crossref record; 50 of the 50 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Influence of Social Hierarchy on Primate Health
Abstract
Dominance hierarchies occur in numerous social species, and rank within them can greatly influence the quality of life of an animal. In this review, I consider how rank can also influence physiology and health. I first consider whether it is high- or low-ranking animals that are most stressed in a dominance hierarchy; this turns out to vary as a function of the social organization in different species and populations. I then review how the stressful characteristics of social rank have adverse adrenocortical, cardiovascular, reproductive, immunological, and neurobiological consequences. Finally, I consider how these findings apply to the human realm of health, disease, and socioeconomic status.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Maintaining a high-status position within such a fluid social structure requires heightened vigilance towards potential threats, particularly those that might challenge an individual’s social standing [70].”
From Socializing a group of male Asian elephants in a semi-captive facility in Lao PDR (2025) · cites this paper as [70]
Citations
Cites
Sapolsky, R. M., Romero, L. M., & Munck, A. U. (2000) · Endocrine Reviews · doi:10.1210/edrv.21.1.0389 · Cited by 7,541
Self-citationAdler, N. E., Epel, E. S., Castellazzo, G., & Ickovics, J. R. (2000) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586 · Cited by 5,080
(1982) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,329
Reproduction and Resistance to Stress: When and How
Wingfield, J. C., & Sapolsky, R. (2003) · Journal of Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2826.2003.01033.x · Cited by 1,160
Self-citationIs Income Inequality a Determinant of Population Health? Part 1. A Systematic Review
Lynch, J. W., Smith, G. D., Harper, S. B., Hillemeier, M. M., Ross, N. A., Kaplan, G. A., & Wolfson, M. C. (2004) · Milbank Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.0887-378x.2004.00302.x · Cited by 949
Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2003) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature01963 · Cited by 912
Magariños, A. M., McEwen, B. S., Flügge, G., & Fuchs, E. (1996) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.16-10-03534.1996 · Cited by 864
Social dominance and stress hormones
Creel, S. (2001) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(01)02227-3 · Cited by 816
Smuts, B. B. (2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315129204 · Cited by 756
Abbott, D. H., Keverne, E. B., Bercovitch, F. B., Shively, C. A., Mendoza, S. P., Wendy Saltzman, A., Snowdon, C. T., Ziegler, T. E., Banjevic, M., Garland, T., et al. (2003) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0018-506x(02)00037-5 · Cited by 748
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- R. Sapolsky et al., Endocr. Rev.21, 55 (2000).
- D. Abbott et al., Comp. Biochem. Physiol. C119, 261 (1998).
- D. Abbott et al., Comp. Biochem. Physiol. C119, 261 (1998).
- B. Wallner, in The Integrative Neurobiology of Affiliation, C. Carter, B. Kirkpatrick, I. Lederhendler, Eds. (New York Academy of Science, New York, 1996), pp. 45–51.
- 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2345(1997)42:1<25::AID-AJP2>3.0.CO;2-0 · DOI
- S. Barnett, Nature175, 126 (1955).
- R. Ader et al. Psychoneuroimmunology (Academic Press San Diego CA 2001) ed. 3.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00047.x · Cited by 2,361
“We chose to use SES as a comparison because it is widely accepted to be one of the most important contributors to a more successful life, including better health and higher occupational attainment (e.g., Adler et al., 1994; Gallo & Mathews, 2003; Galobardes, Lynch, & Smith, 2004; Sapolsky, 2005).”
Method8 Social Hierarchy: The Self‐Reinforcing Nature of Power and Status
Magee, J. C., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008) · Academy of Management Annals · doi:10.5465/19416520802211628 · Cited by 2,385
Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research
Hackman, D. A., Farah, M. J., & Meaney, M. J. (2010) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2897 · Cited by 1,409
Effects of stress on immune function: The good, the bad, and the beautiful
Dhabhar, F. S. (2014) · Immunologic Research · doi:10.1007/s12026-014-8517-0 · Cited by 1,343
Vaughn, M. G., DeLisi, M., & Matto, H. C. (2013) · Human behavior · doi:10.1002/9781394260546.ch8 · Cited by 1,208
Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations
Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691610369469 · Cited by 1,132
“In some species, the presence of local dominant males can suppress sexual maturation in nearby younger males (signaling that the metabolic costs of mating effort would not be worthwhile; e.g., Davis & Fernald, 1990; Sapolsky, 2005).”
The reactive scope model — A new model integrating homeostasis, allostasis, and stress
Romero, L. M., Dickens, M. J., & Cyr, N. E. (2009) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.12.009 · Cited by 1,096
“It is striking how closely the pathological consequences of social stress presented above (Sapolsky, 2005) match the consequences of having stress mediators in the Homeostatic Overload range as shown in Table 1.”
InfluentialCheng, J. T., Tracy, J. L., Foulsham, T., Kingstone, A. F., & Henrich, J. (2012) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0030398 · Cited by 1,036
Dhabhar, F. S. (2009) · Neuroimmunomodulation · doi:10.1159/000216188 · Cited by 903
Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. J. (2010) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797610383437 · Cited by 946
“Thus, the power holder’s typical neuroendocrine profile of high testosterone coupled with low cortisol—a profile linked to such outcomes as disease resistance (Sapolsky, 2005) and leadership abilities (Mehta & Josephs, 2010)—appears to be optimally adaptive.”
Dieter Wolke, C., & Lereya, S. T. (2015) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306667 · Cited by 809
Social determinants of health and survival in humans and other animals
Snyder-Mackler, N., Burger, J. R., Gaydosh, L., Belsky, D. W., Noppert, G. A., Campos, F. A., Bartolomucci, A., Yang, Y. C., Aiello, A. E., O’Rand, A., et al. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aax9553 · Cited by 679
“For example, differences in the routes throughwhich status is attained, the steepness and regularity of hierarchy enforcement, and the availability of coping outlets have all been proposed to modify the severity of social gradients (1, 32, 139).”
BackgroundIntroduction to the special issue on structural stigma and health
Hatzenbuehler, M. L., & Link, B. G. (2013) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.12.017 · Cited by 648
“…the author uses laboratory data to show that men who lose social influence among other men in a smallgroup setting exhibit a biological stress response, as measured by the hormone cortisol, which has been linked to health problems when chronically activated (McEwan, 1998; Sapolsky, 2005).”
MethodKnow Your Place: Neural Processing of Social Hierarchy in Humans
Zink, C. F., Tong, Y., Chen, Q., Bassett, D. S., Stein, J. L., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2008) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.025 · Cited by 622
“, 2001) and neuroendocrine (Sapolsky, 2005) systems and can be automatically and efficiently inferred (Moors and De Houwer, 2005), indicating the existence of biological systems that process social rank information; yet, virtually nothing is known about the neural representations of social hierarchies in humans.”
Hare, B., Wobber, V., & Wrangham, R. (2012) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.12.007 · Cited by 613
“Less aggressive males that avoid both the risks and the costs of physical aggression (Sapolsky 2005) and that use alternative means to access females”
BackgroundStress and the social brain: behavioural effects and neurobiological mechanisms
Sandi, C., & Haller, J. (2015) · Nature reviews. Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn3918 · Cited by 657
Bickel, W. K., Jarmolowicz, D. P., Mueller, E. T., Koffarnus, M. N., & Gatchalian, K. M. (2012) · Pharmacology & Therapeutics · doi:10.1016/j.pharmthera.2012.02.004 · Cited by 604
“Moreover, there may be other trans-disease processes, in addition to excessive discounting, such as those associated with stress (Sapolsky, 2005) or autoimmune response (Rose & Bona, 1993).”
BackgroundSilenced by fear:The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work
Kish-Gephart, J. J., Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Edmondson, A. C. (2009) · Research in Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.riob.2009.07.002 · Cited by 640
Neural circuit mechanisms of social behavior
Chen, P., & Hong, W. (2018) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2018.02.026 · Cited by 527
“…social rank, or dominance, in males is associated with greater access to resources and reproductive success (although in primates this association is complicated; Ellis, 1995), with individuals of different ranks experiencing different kinds of physical and psychosocial stressors (Sapolsky, 2005).”
Testosterone and cortisol jointly regulate dominance: evidence for a dual-hormone hypothesis
Mehta, P. H., & Josephs, R. A. (2010) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.08.020 · Cited by 574
“Dominance behavior is associated with gaining and maintaining high status within hierarchical organizations (Anderson and Kilduff, 2009; Saposky, 2005).”
Modern Approaches to Conceptualizing and Measuring Human Life Stress
Monroe, S. M. (2008) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.4.022007.141207 · Cited by 621
Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons
Strandburg‐Peshkin, A., Farine, D. R., Couzin, I. D., & Crofoot, M. C. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaa5099 · Cited by 563
Bidirectional control of social hierarchy by synaptic efficacy in medial prefrontal cortex
Wang, F., Zhu, J., Zhu, H., Zhang, Q., Lin, Z., & Hu, H. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1209951 · Cited by 528
Animal personality due to social niche specialisation
Bergmüller, R., & Michael Taborsky, A. (2010) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2010.06.012 · Cited by 522
The ecology of stress: effects of the social environment
Creel, S., Dantzer, B., Goymann, W., & Rubenstein, D. R. (2012) · Functional Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02029.x · Cited by 516
“Hence, similar to species with rank-inheritance or queuing conventions, rank-related patterns of glucocorticoid levels are unlikely to be the cause of reproductive suppression, and as long as there are no acute challenges, the correlation between rank and glucocorticoids could be positive, negative or neutral (Creel,…”
BackgroundInfluentialSchreck, C. B., & Tort, L. (2016) · Fish physiology · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-802728-8.00001-1 · Cited by 541
Interpersonal Stratification: Status, Power, and Subordination
Fiske, S. T. (2010) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy002026 · Cited by 492
Psychosocial stress and change in weight among US adults
Block, J. P., He, Y., Zaslavsky, A. M., Ding, L., & Ayanian, J. Z. (2009) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/aje/kwp104 · Cited by 484
Assessing dominance hierarchies: validation and advantages of progressive evaluation with Elo-rating
Neumann, C., Duboscq, J., Dubuc, C., Ginting, A., Irwan, A. M., Agil, M., Widdig, A., & Engelhardt, A. (2011) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.07.016 · Cited by 498
Money, schooling, and health: Mechanisms and causal evidence
Kawachi, I. I., Adler, N. E., & Dow, W. H. (2010) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05340.x · Cited by 489
The Psychology of Competition: A Social Comparison Perspective
Garcia, S. M., Tor, A., & Schiff, T. M. (2013) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691613504114 · Cited by 520
“…standard, expressing sensitivity to rankings and hierarchies (e.g., Beehner, Bergman, Cheney, Seyfarth, & Whitten, 2006; Bergman, Beehner, Cheney, & Seyfarth, 2003; Sapolsky, 2005) as well as to social category fault lines, distinguishing between the in-group and out-groups (Bergman et al., 2003).”
Subjective socioeconomic status and adolescent health: A meta-analysis.
Quon, E. C., & McGrath, J. J. (2013) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0033716 · Cited by 488
“Research in nonhuman primates has demonstrated the importance of subordinate rank on physical and psychological stress (Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundFemale competition and its evolutionary consequences in mammals
Stockley, P., & Bro‐Jørgensen, J. (2010) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.2010.00149.x · Cited by 467
“Prolonged stress associated with social harassment may also result in reduced lifespan, with further long-term consequences for reproductive success (von Holst et al., 2002; Epel et al., 2004; Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundDantzer, B., Fletcher, Q. E., Boonstra, R., & Sheriff, M. J. (2014) · Conservation Physiology · doi:10.1093/conphys/cou023 · Cited by 467
“Integrated measures of glucocorticoids: faeces, urine, feathers and hair Individuals experiencing chronic stress are thought to experience a higher cumulative exposure to glucocorticoids (Sapolsky et al., 1986; Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundInfluentialFundamental motives: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior
Griskevicius, V., & Kenrick, D. T. (2013) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2013.03.003 · Cited by 479
“Dominant baboons get first crack at food and the best spot at the watering hole, and dominant male chimps get to mate with the most desirable females (Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundIntelligence and Personality as Predictors of Illness and Death
Deary, I. J., Weiß, A., & Batty, G. D. (2010) · Gothic.net · doi:10.1177/1529100610387081 · Cited by 461
“There are some strong advocates of such an explanation (Marmot, 2004; Sapolsky, 2005), but evidential links in the causal chain are missing (Deary, Batty, & Gottfredson, 2005).”
BackgroundDeary, I. J. (2012) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100353 · Cited by 467
A consensus endocrine profile for chronically stressed wild animals does not exist
Dickens, M. J., & Romero, L. M. (2013) · General and Comparative Endocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2013.06.014 · Cited by 420
Happiness adaptation to income and to status in an individual panel
Tella, R. D., Haisken‐DeNew, J. P., & MacCulloch, R. (2010) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2010.09.016 · Cited by 461
“6 There is a large literature on the link between social hierarchy and primate health, reviewed in Sapolsky (2005). happiness are produced when individual income falls as when the neighbor’s income increases and concludes that there are sizeable relative income effects.”
Social competition and selection in males and females
Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Huchard, É. (2013) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0074 · Cited by 413
“In addition, high rank often affects access to resources as well as to alliance partners [117,121,133] and is frequently associated with benefits to health and survival [134–136].”
BackgroundYeager, D. S., Johnson, R., Spitzer, B. J., Trzesniewski, K. H., Powers, J., & Dweck, C. S. (2014) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0036335 · Cited by 389
“…to cope with them (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), and past research has found that stress is greatest when ambiguity and uncertainty about social status are high, such as when social hierarchies are uprooted (for a review of the primate and human literature, see Sapolsky, 2005; also see Gould, 2003).”
BackgroundManer, J. K., & Mead, N. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0018559 · Cited by 417
Intrasexual competition in females: evidence for sexual selection?
Rosvall, K. A. (2011) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/arr106 · Cited by 410
Correlated neural activity and encoding of behavior across brains of socially interacting animals
Kingsbury, L., Huang, S., Wang, J., Gu, K., Golshani, P., Wu, Y. E., & Hong, W. (2019) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.022 · Cited by 380
“Competitive interactions are common among social species and play an important role in shaping social status hierarchies (Williamson et al., 2016) which influence the long-term health of individuals (Cooper et al., 2015; Sapolsky, 2004, 2005).”
BackgroundStatus Syndrome: A Challenge to Medicine
Marmot, M. G. (2006) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.295.11.1304 · Cited by 372
“Sapolsky hypothesizes that stress, linked to low social status, is to blame.(12)”
BackgroundStress, social behavior, and resilience: Insights from rodents
Beery, A. K., & Kaufer, D. (2014) · Neurobiology of Stress · doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2014.10.004 · Cited by 394
“Negative health effects of low social status have been particularly well documented in nonhuman primates (e.g. Sapolsky, 1989, 2005; Virgin and Sapolsky, 1997; Wu et al., 2014; Shively review, 2015).”
BackgroundPosition statement. Part two: Maintaining immune health.
Walsh, N. P., Gleeson, M., Pyne, D. B., Nieman, D. C., Dhabhar, F. S., Shephard, R. J., Oliver, S. J., Bermon, S., & Kajėnienė, A. (2011) · PubMed · Cited by 365
Power, Status, and Learning in Organizations
Bunderson, J. S., & Reagans, R. E. (2010) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.1100.0590 · Cited by 378
“Sapolsky (2005) summarized evidence suggesting that, across a variety of species, individuals lower in the status hierarchy exhibit more evidence of stress when the hierarchy is stable and less stress when the hierarchy is …”
BackgroundHistory of winning remodels thalamo-PFC circuit to reinforce social dominance
Zhou, T., Zhu, H. L., Fan, Z., Wang, F., Yang, C., Liang, H., Yang, Z., Zhang, L., Lin, L., Zhan, Y., et al. (2017) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aak9726 · Cited by 358
Severe Life Stress and Oxidative Stress in the Brain: From Animal Models to Human Pathology
Schiavone, S., Jaquet, V., Trabace, L., & Krause, K. (2012) · Antioxidants and Redox Signaling · doi:10.1089/ars.2012.4720 · Cited by 363
Life at the Top: Rank and Stress in Wild Male Baboons
Gesquiere, L. R., Learn, N. H., Simao, M. C., Onyango, P. O., Alberts, S. C., & Jeanne Altmann, A. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1207120 · Cited by 343
Social stress, therapeutics and drug abuse: Preclinical models of escalated and depressed intake
MICZEK, K., YAP, J., & COVINGTONIII, H. (2008) · Pharmacology & Therapeutics · doi:10.1016/j.pharmthera.2008.07.006 · Cited by 338
“This immediate glucocorticoid response activates energy metabolism and an immune response that are instrumental in coping with these stressors, and in this sense the protective and restorative role of glucocorticoid activation is evident (Dallman et al., 1993; Sapolsky, 2005).”
Lewis, T. T., Everson‐Rose, S. A., Powell, L. H., Matthews, K. A., Brown, C., Karavolos, K., Sutton‐Tyrrell, K., Jacobs, E. A., & Wesley, D. (2006) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000221360.94700.16 · Cited by 326
The journal of developmental processes
Disorders, L., & Milton (2006) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 325
Phenotypic plasticity and experimental evolution
Garland, T., & Kelly, S. A. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Biology · doi:10.1242/jeb.02244 · Cited by 331
Beijers, R., Buitelaar, J. K., & de Weerth, C. (2014) · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s00787-014-0566-3 · Cited by 354
“Stress has complex effects upon immunity that depend on time and severity of the stressors [73].”
BackgroundSocial status alters immune regulation and response to infection in macaques
Snyder-Mackler, N., Sanz, J., Kohn, J. N., Brinkworth, J. F., Morrow, S., Shaver, A. O., Grenier, J.-C., Pique-Regi, R., Johnson, Z. P., Wilson, M. E., et al. (2016) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aah3580 · Cited by 318
Dhabhar, F. S. (2018) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.004 · Cited by 377
“Numerous definitions have been proposed for the concept of stress, each focusing on aspects of an internal or external challenge, disturbance, or stimulus; on stimulus perception by an organism; or on a physiological response to the stimulus [12; 13; 14].”
BackgroundKoffarnus, M. N., Jarmolowicz, D. P., Mueller, E. T., & Bickel, W. K. (2012) · Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior · doi:10.1002/jeab.2 · Cited by 306
“For example, stress has been implicated as an underlying cause or exacerbating factor in a number of disorders with seemingly unique etiologies (Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundMale dominance rank and reproductive success in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii.
Wroblewski, E. E., Murray, C. M., Keele, B. F., Schumacher-Stankey, J. C., Hahn, B. H., & Pusey, A. E. (2009) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.12.014 · Cited by 306
“High dominance rank carries costs such as stress, physiological and metabolic costs, and immunosuppression (Muller & Wrangham 2004; reviewed in Sapolsky 2005).”
The effects of social status on biological aging as measured by white‐blood‐cell telomere length
Cherkas, L. F., Aviv, A., Valdes, A. M., Hunkin, J., Gardner, J. P., Surdulescu, G. L., Kimura, M., & Spector, T. D. (2006) · Aging Cell · doi:10.1111/j.1474-9726.2006.00222.x · Cited by 306
“Socio-economic status influences health and mortality (WHO, 2002; Adams & White, 2004; Marmot, 2004, 2005; Sapolsky, 2005), but its impact on the aging process itself is unknown.”
BackgroundInfluentialSocial environment is associated with gene regulatory variation in the rhesus macaque immune system
Tung, J., Barreiro, L. B., Johnson, Z. P., Hansen, K. D., Michopoulos, V., Toufexis, D., Michelini, K., Wilson, M. E., & Gilad, Y. (2012) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1202734109 · Cited by 277
“However, the current results support the idea that changes in gene regulation help to explain links between the social environment and physiology, potentially supplying an important piece to the puzzle of how social effects “get under the skin” (3, 31).”
BackgroundResultLebrón‐Milad, K., & Milad, M. R. (2012) · Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1186/2045-5380-2-3 · Cited by 319
“In male primates, dominance is associated with higher testosterone levels and a decrease in stress response, indicating that dominant males find dominance signals less stressful and are more primed to engage in a dominance challenge [127,128].”
BackgroundChildhood bullying involvement predicts low-grade systemic inflammation into adulthood
Copeland, W. E., Wolke, D., Lereya, S. T., Shanahan, L., Worthman, C., & Costello, E. J. (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1323641111 · Cited by 291
“Our findings also are consistent with studies showing lower inflammation rates for individuals with higher SES (23) and studies with nonhuman primates showing health benefits for those higher in the social hierarchy (40).”
ResultMitochondrial function in the brain links anxiety with social subordination
Hollis, F., van der Kooij, M. A., Zanoletti, O., Lozano, L., Cantó, C., & Sandi, C. (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1512653112 · Cited by 288
“Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 8(1):93–105.”
BackgroundSigns of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in Everyday Life
Kraus, M. W., Park, J. W., & Tan, J. J. X. (2017) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691616673192 · Cited by 288
“…to fiddler crabs, individuals across species signal their broadly defined social status with nonverbal behaviors (Hall, Coats, & LeBeau, 2005; Sapolsky, 2005; Sergio et al., 2011), vocalizations (Dunbar & Burgoon, 2005; Gregory & Webster, 1996; Ko, Sadler, & Galinsky, 2015), and social…”
InfluentialPower: Past findings, present considerations, and future directions.
Galinsky, A. D., Rucker, D. D., & Magee, J. C. (2014) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/14344-016 · Cited by 296
Focused grooming networks and stress alleviation in wild female baboons
Wittig, R. M., Crockford, C., Lehmann, J., Whitten, P. L., Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L. (2008) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.02.009 · Cited by 284
“However, during the previous period of stability in the same social group, there was no relation between female dominance rank and GC levels, a finding supported by other studies of female primates (Abbott et al., 2003; Sapolsky, 2005).”
ResultHeterogeneity in pathogen transmission: mechanisms and methodology
VanderWaal, K. L., & Ezenwa, V. O. (2016) · Functional Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12645 · Cited by 295
“Therefore, variation across individuals in their exposure and response to stress likely promotes heterogeneity in V. Behaviour, particularly social behaviour, is an important driver of variability in responses to stress in both humans and animals (Sapolsky 2004, 2005).”
BackgroundRethinking Interdisciplinarity across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences
Callard, F. J., & Fitzgerald, D. (2015) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137407962 · Cited by 282
Wells, J. C. K. (2009) · American Journal of Human Biology · doi:10.1002/ajhb.20994 · Cited by 269
“Sapolsky RM. 2005.”
The mouse that roared: neural mechanisms of social hierarchy
Wang, F., Kessels, H. W. H. G., & Hu, H. (2014) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2014.07.005 · Cited by 276
Chronic Social Instability Induces Anxiety and Defective Social Interactions Across Generations
Saavedra-Rodríguez, L., & Feig, L. A. (2012) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.035 · Cited by 274
“Whereas social defeat stress involves a strong distinction between dominant and subordinate individuals, this model of social instability interferes with hierarchical separations (20) and may resemble what humans can experience in a continuously changing social environment (1,9).”
Juster, R.-P., Bizik, G., Picard, M., Arsenault-Lapierre, G., Sindi, S., Trepanier, L., Marin, M.-F., Wan, N., Sekerovic, Z., Lord, C., et al. (2011) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579411000289 · Cited by 268
“Based on groundbreaking studies of maternal handling in rodents (Meaney, Aitken, van Berkel, Bhatnagar, & Sapolsky, 1988), exemplary parenting in rhesus monkeys (Suomi, Delizio, & Harlow, 1976), and social dominance hierarchies in free-ranging baboons (Sapolsky, 2005), Hertzman further argues that biological embedding…”
BackgroundChapter 1 Maternal Effects in Fish Populations
Green, B. S. (2008) · Advances in marine biology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2881(08)00001-1 · Cited by 272
Glucocorticoid stress hormones and the effect of predation risk on elk reproduction
Creel, S., Winnie, J. A., & Christianson, D. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0902235106 · Cited by 256
“Chronic elevation of GCs can have many pathological consequences (19, 21, 22), including shifts in metabolic pathways that mobilize energy in the short term, but reduce metabolic efficiency.”
BackgroundKappeler, P. M., Cremer, S., & Nunn, C. L. (2015) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0116 · Cited by 275
Prevention and treatment of drug addiction by environmental enrichment
Solinas, M., Thiriet, N., Chauvet, C., & Jaber, M. (2010) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2010.08.002 · Cited by 270
Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress
Sherman, G. D., Lee, J., Cuddy, A. J. C., Renshon, J., Oveis, C., Gross, J. J., & Lerner, J. S. (2012) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1207042109 · Cited by 253
“This relationship is especially apparent when the hierarchy is uncontested and harassment of subordinates is frequent (8, 9).”
BackgroundParasite infection and host group size: a meta-analytical review
Patterson, J. E. H., & Ruckstuhl, K. E. (2013) · Parasitology · doi:10.1017/s0031182012002259 · Cited by 242
“Additionally, larger, less stable groups have been shown to experience increased social stress related to crowding and/or less rigid dominance hierarchies (Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundKleist, N. J., Guralnick, R., Cruz, A., Lowry, C. A., & Francis, C. D. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1709200115 · Cited by 241
“, 90–105 dB (23); 130 dB (24)] only at very close proximity to noise sources.”
BackgroundThe Social Ladder: A Rank-Based Perspective on Social Class
Kraus, M. W., Tan, J. J. X., & Tannenbaum, M. B. (2013) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2013.778803 · Cited by 258
“, activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the release of pro-inflammatory hormones) that, if experienced over time, can be detrimental to the health and longevity of lower-class individuals (Miller et al., 2009; Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Neurobiology of Social Distance
Bzdok, D., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2020) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.05.016 · Cited by 258
“Nonetheless, dysregulated diurnal cortisol levels are further linked to various mental disorders including major depression, substance abuse, and post-dramatic stress disorder [152], in addition to stress-mediated effects on the immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic systems [159,160].”
Broadening the FocusThe Need to Address the Social Determinants of Health
Braveman, P., Egerter, S. A., & Mockenhaupt, R. E. (2010) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2010.10.002 · Cited by 247
Stress, Overeating, and Obesity: Insights from Human Studies and Preclinical Models
Razzoli, M., Pearson, C., Crow, S., & Bartolomucci, A. (2017) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.01.026 · Cited by 228
The testosterone–cortisol ratio: A hormonal marker for proneness to social aggression
Terburg, D., Morgan, B., & van Honk, J. (2009) · International Journal of Law and Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.04.008 · Cited by 266
“Through interaction of dominant and subordinate individuals, social hierarchies are established and, as stated earlier, social hierarchy and levels of testosterone and cortisol interact (Sapolsky, 2005).”
BackgroundUsing the tube test to measure social hierarchy in mice
Fan, Z., Zhu, H. L., Zhou, T., Wang, S., Wu, Y., & Hu, H. (2019) · Nature Protocols · doi:10.1038/s41596-018-0116-4 · Cited by 227
Branchi, I., D’Andrea, I., Fiore, M., Di Fausto, V., Aloe, L., & Alleva, E. (2006) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.01.005 · Cited by 227
Friesen, J. P., Kay, A. C., Eibach, R. P., & Galinsky, A. D. (2014) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0035620 · Cited by 250
“…ubiquitous feature of social organization in both human and non-human societies; they develop quickly and spontaneously, among individuals and between groups (Eagly & Karau, 1991; Halevy, Chou, & Galinsky, 2011; Sadler & Woody, 2003; Sapolsky, 2005; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; Weissbrod et al., 2013).”
BackgroundPerspectives on Power in Organizations
Anderson, C. P., & Brion, S. (2014) · Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091259 · Cited by 249
Social stressors and coping mechanisms in wild female baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus)
Crockford, C., Wittig, R. M., Whitten, P. L., Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L. (2008) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.10.007 · Cited by 229
“An emerging body of research suggests that a variety of factors, including level of social support the degree of control and predictability that individuals are able to exert over their daily lives, can all influence animals' stress responses independent of any specific event (Weiss, 1968; Abbott…”
InfluentialUnderstanding social hierarchies: The neural and psychological foundations of status perception
Koski, J. E., Xie, H., & Olson, I. R. (2015) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2015.1013223 · Cited by 277
“Thus, an important function of the hierarchy may be to define social roles (Halevy et al., 2011) and allocate limited resources (Sapolsky, 2005).”
Keep Calm and Cuddle on: Social Touch as a Stress Buffer
Morrison, I. (2016) · Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology · doi:10.1007/s40750-016-0052-x · Cited by 256
Supply and demand determine the market value of food providers in wild vervet monkeys
Fruteau, C., Voelkl, B., van Damme, E. E. C., & Noë, R. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0812280106 · Cited by 226
“However, the stress hypothesis also predicts that high-ranking handlers, who cause more stress (50), would have to groom longer than low-ranking ones.”
BackgroundChronic stress triggers social aversion via glucocorticoid receptor in dopaminoceptive neurons
Barik, J., Marti, F., Morel, C., Fernandez, S. P., Lanteri, C., Godeheu, G., Tassin, J.-P., Mombereau, C., Faure, P., & Tronche, F. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1226767 · Cited by 214
Perigenual anterior cingulate morphology covaries with perceived social standing
Gianaros, P. J., Horenstein, J. A., Cohen, S., Matthews, K. A., Brown, S. M., Flory, J. D., Critchley, H. D., Manuck, S. B., & Hariri, A. R. (2007) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsm013 · Cited by 214
“…to fully characterize an individual’s perception of her or his relative standing or ranking in a social hierarchy, formally termed subjective social status (Cohen et al., 1997; Kaplan and Manuck, 1999; Wilkinson, 1999; Adler et al., 2000; McEwen, 2000a; Steptoe and Marmot, 2002; Sapolsky, 2005b).”
BackgroundInfluentialSocial stress, immune functions and disease in rodents
Bartolomucci, A. (2007) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2007.02.001 · Cited by 215
Adaptive evolution of young gene duplicates in mammalsPreprint
Han, M., Demuth, J. P., McGrath, C., Casola, C., & Hahn, M. W. (2009) · Genome Research · doi:10.1101/gr.085951.108 · Cited by 205
Larrieu, T., Cherix, A., Duque, A., Rodrigues, J., Lei, H., Gruetter, R., & Sandi, C. (2017) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.027 · Cited by 202
“Our identification of dominant mice as the ones that show vulnerability to CSDS might appear counterintuitive at first glance given the broad literature indicating that subordinate individuals tend to have reduced fitness [24, 25].”
BackgroundUnravelling the neurophysiological basis of aggression in a fish model
Filby, A. L., Paull, G. C., Hickmore, T. F., & Tyler, C. R. (2010) · BMC Genomics · doi:10.1186/1471-2164-11-498 · Cited by 206
“In this respect, aggression is viewed as an adaptation that can have key effects on the lifelong success of individuals and that conveys evolutionary fitness [2].”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Sapolsky, R. M.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Primate Research (KE)
- Corresponding author
- Sapolsky, Robert M.
- ORCID
- Sapolsky, Robert M.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2005-04-29
- Volume
- 308
- Issue
- 5722
- Pages
- 648-652
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2165558339
- Cited by
- 2,113
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 82 · 2025: 102 · 2024: 78 · 2023: 145 · 2022: 140 · 2021: 102 · 2020: 98 · 2019: 172 · 2018: 120 · 2017: 106 · 2016: 146 · 2015: 111 · 2014: 112 · 2013: 127 · 2012: 102
- FWCI
- 6.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- dominance hierarchy, social rank, primate health, stress, adrenocortical stress response, cardiovascular effects, reproductive effects, immunological effects, neurobiology, socioeconomic status, human health, social organization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anxiety, Behavior, Animal, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Catecholamines, Dominance-Subordination, Health Status, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Immune System, Nervous System Physiological Phenomena, Primates, Reproduction, Social Behavior, Social Class, Social Dominance, Stress, Physiological
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
