Allen, T. F. H. and T. B. Starr: Hierarchy: Perspectives for ecological complexity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, 310 pp.

Bosserman, Robert W.

doi:10.1002/bs.3830280407

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…This seems to be consistent with the cognitive framework which posits that mental representations of concepts are tied to their perceptual basis [19,21,22]. The existence of the space-dominance link during the early developmental stages also suggests that evolved cognitive mechanisms may form the basis for the social status hierarchies that undergird human and non-human societies [13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Anthropological studies and experimental evidence have shown that power is mentally represented as vertical space: high-ranked individuals are in higher spatial positions than low-ranked individuals [13,14]. For instance, social dominance hierarchies are ubiquitously represented as pyramid-like structures [15,16], and people daily use linguistic expressions such as 'high' and 'low-status'; 'control is up', 'lack of control is down' [17][18][19]. As young as 5 years old, children develop adult-like space-dominance associative representation: they judge a person with tilted head up as more powerful (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant

et al. 2019

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Social hierarchies exist throughout the animal kingdom, including among humans. Our daily interactions inevitably reflect social dominance relationships between individuals. How do we mentally represent such concepts? Studies show that social dominance is represented as vertical space (i.e. high = dominant) by adults and preschool children, suggesting a space-dominance representational link in social cognition. However, little is known about its early development. Here, we present experimental evidence that 12- to 16-month-old infants expect agents presented in a higher spatial position to be more socially dominant than agents in a lower spatial position. After infants repeatedly watched the higher and lower agents being presented simultaneously, they looked longer at the screen when the lower agent subsequently outcompeted the higher agent in securing a reward object, suggesting that this outcome violated their higher-is-dominant expectation. We first manipulated agents' positions by presenting them on a podium (experiment 1). Then we presented the agents on a double-decker stand to make their spatial positions directly above or below each other (experiment 2), and we replicated the results (experiment 3). This research demonstrates that infants expect spatially higher-positioned agents to be socially dominant, suggesting deep roots of the space-dominance link in ontogeny.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant

et al. 2019

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“…Besides these non-verbal cues, we humans developed a conceptual metaphor, which connects social rank to the spatial domain (e.g., “high” vs “low status” [Pinker, 1997]). Accordingly, humans represent social status in a pyramidal-like structure (Bosserman, 1983): high-ranked individuals are represented in spatially higher positions than low-ranked individuals in diverse contexts, for example, stratification (Saunders, 1989), organizations (Weber, 1991), religion, family, human needs (Maslow, 1943), and others. In this study, we examined if such conceptual metaphorical mapping between social dominance and the spatial domain is uniquely human or if it appears in our evolutionary closest relative, the chimpanzees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual metaphorical mapping in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Dahl

Adachi

2013

eLife

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Conceptual metaphors are linguistic constructions. Such a metaphor is humans’ mental representation of social rank as a pyramidal-like structure. High-ranked individuals are represented in higher positions than low-ranked individuals. We show that conceptual metaphorical mapping between social rank and the representational domain exists in our closest evolutionary relatives, the chimpanzees. Chimpanzee participants were requested to discriminate face identities in a vertical arrangement. We found a modulation of response latencies by the rank of the presented individual and the position on the display: a high-ranked individual presented in the higher and a low-ranked individual in the lower position led to quicker identity discrimination than a high-ranked individual in the lower and a low-ranked individual in the higher position. Such a spatial representation of dominance hierarchy in chimpanzees suggests that a natural tendency to systematically map an abstract dimension exists in the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00932.001

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Allen, T. F. H. and T. B. Starr: Hierarchy: Perspectives for ecological complexity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, 310 pp.

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant

Space and rank: infants expect agents in higher position to be socially dominant

Conceptual metaphorical mapping in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

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