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Adaptations for Navigating Social Hierarchies

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Behavioral and mental traits for navigating social hierarchies; Strategies for navigating social rank hierarchies

Definition

Adaptations for navigating social hierarchies are the evolved behavioral traits, cognitive and social skills, and emotions (reflected in human brain structure) that facilitate social hierarchies. They are manifested in hierarchical social categorization, dominance, prestige, or leadership motive systems for attaining and maintaining high social rank and verbal and nonverbal symbols signaling status.

Introduction

A hierarchical organization of social relations is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom (including among humans). This is a starting point for considering the issue of adaptations for navigating social hierarchies in human society. Based on that, the representatives of the humanities and social science analyze the common evolutionary mechanisms of the origin of such adaptations, namely, evolved behavioral and mental traits (strong associates with...

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Acknowledgment

This text is a result of work as part of the research project funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the government of Ulyanovsk region of the Russian Federation, grant № 18-411-730014 (р_а).

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Correspondence to Yulia Shkurko .

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Shkurko, Y. (2020). Adaptations for Navigating Social Hierarchies. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1764-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1764-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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