Styles of dominance and their endocrine correlates among wild olive baboons (Papio anubis)

Abstract

We have studied the relationship between dominance rank and physiology among male olive baboons (Papio anubis) living freely in a national park in Africa. In stable hierarchies, dominant males consistently have lower basal concentrations than do subordinates of the adrenal glucocorticoid cortisol. Because of the known catabolic actions of glucocorticoids, dominant males may be less at risk for some of the pathogenic consequences of glucocorticoid overexposure. We find that low basal cortisol concentration is not, in fact, a marker of social dominance; instead, it is only found among dominant males with a certain style of dominance. Lower basal cortisol concentrations occurred among males with any of the following behaviors: the most marked ability to distinguish between threatening and merely neutral interactions with rivals and, if the former, the greatest likelihood of initiating a fight; the most skill at distinguishing between winning and losing a fight and, if the latter, the greatest likelihood of displacing aggression onto a third party. Collectively, these behaviors suggest high degrees of social skillfulness, control, and predictability over social contingencies, all recognized as psychological features that minimize the pathophysiological impact of stress. Dominant males lacking these behavioral features, in contrast, had as high cortisol concentrations as did subordinate males. Finally, low basal cortisol concentrations were also a feature of males with the longest tenures in the dominant cohort, suggesting that this endocrine dichotomy is meaningful in terms of life histories.

Social modulation of stress responses

“…Another subset of subordinate males, who initiate fights or displace aggression afterwards, have relatively low cortisol concentrations [25]. Together, these studies suggest that olive baboons exhibit a variety of behavioral styles and coping strategies and that these behavioral traits may impact both social rank and cortisol concentrations [20,25,34]. Dominant African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) also tend to exhibit dimorphic behavioral and endocrine patterns in captivity [35].…”

“…Likewise, this second subpopulation of dominant animals frequently uses outlets for frustration (for example, displacement of aggression on lower ranking individuals). The authors of the study suggest that rather than being a marker for dominance, low baseline cortisol concentrations are more closely correlated with behavioral traits that may affect outcome of a dominance interaction [34]. There also appears to be subpopulations of subordinate males with behavioral and physiological characteristics that differ from the typical subordinate population values [25].…”

“…Among the high-ranking male baboons, there are subpopulations of ''low cortisol'' individuals that exhibit one of two effective behavioral strategies [20,34]. The first subpopulation consists of males that engage in high levels of positive social interaction, particularly with females and infants.…”

A Reciprocal Influence Model of Social Power: Emerging Principles and Lines of Inquiry

“…What does the experience of power correlate with in the phenomenological moment? Studies seeking answers to this question have found that contextual shifts in the individual's power lead to, for example, variation in cortisol (Ray & Sapolsky, 1992;Sapolsky & Ray, 1989) and testosterone (Bernhardt, 1997;Dabbs, 1997;Gladue, Boechler, & McCaul, 1989;Mazur & Booth, 1998), linguistic and paralinguistic behavior (Dovidio & Ellyson, 1982;Hall, Coats, & LeBeau, 2005;Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), as well as strategic social behavior and mood (Moskowitz, 1994).…”

Social correlates of testosterone and ornamentation in male mandrills

“…It seems likely that differences in recent experience (e.g. defeat in male-male interactions depresses testosterone levels, Raleigh and Macquire, 1990;Rose et al, 1975;Sapolsky, 1987), or in personality (Sapolsky and Ray, 1989), may be more important than small differences in body size when males decide whether or not to attempt a dominance take-over.…”