The Cultural Evolution of Social Hierarchy: Dominance, Prestige, Social Learning

Abstract

In this thesis, I focus on two broad research questions derived from a theory proposed by Henrich and Gil-White: (i) the use of prestige cues for social learning (Chapters 2-4) and (ii) dominance and prestige as two strategies to acquire high social rank and social influence in human groups (Chapters 5-6). In Chapter 2, I review the literature on the adaptive value and actual use of prestige-biased social learning, finding mixed support. Chapter 3 tests whether information provided by high prestige sources of information is better transmitted than information provided by a low prestige source using a transmission chain experiment, finding no evidence to support this prediction. Chapter 4 presents another transmission chain experiment testing whether dominance and prestige cues are better transmitted than medium social rank cues. I find better transmission of dominance and prestige cues than medium social rank cues, but no reliable differences in the transmission of dominance and prestige cues. Chapter 5 reviews the literature on the dominance-prestige distinction and related areas of research. It proposes an integrated model to accommodate conflicting findings and extend its application to large-scale societies/groups with formal hierarchies. In Chapter 6, I find that economic uncertainty and intergroup conflict both predict preferences for both dominant and prestigious leaders using data from the World Values Survey. I also find that liberal ideology is positively related to perceptions of Donald Trump as dominant and Hillary Clinton as prestigious and negatively related to perceptions of Hillary Clinton as dominant and Donald Trump as prestigious, using survey data collected prior the 2016 US Presidential Election. Finally, Chapter 7 presents an overview of the thesis, discuss its implications for further research on prestige-biased social learning and social hierarchy and outlines new avenues for research.