Coalitions, Dominance and Egalitarianism

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Cooperation and dominance are central to the study of animalsocial relations, a remarkable feature of which is the emergenceand persistence of linear dominance hierarchies or "peckingorders." For well over half a century, the conventionaltheoretical approach to cooperation and dominance has been tostudy them separately. But this approach ultimately yieldsdiminishing returns, because each phenomenon incorporates crucialaspects of the other. On the one hand, a dominance hierarchy is acooperative structure: well organized groups, in which eachindividual knows and is fairly resigned to its particular socialstatus, are more productive than similar groups in a constantstate of organizational turmoil. On the other hand, there areindividual benefits to holding high rank within a dominancehierarchy, and animals can help themselves obtain those benefitsby forming coalitions with others. The investigator studies theseconnections between cooperation and dominance by developing asuite of analytical and computational models to predict theeffects of coalition formation on the emergence and stability ofdominance hierarchies versus more egalitarian social structures,and to identify conditions that favor each possible outcome. Themodels are "games," i.e., mathematical models of strategicinteraction. There is no formal theory to predict the effects ofcoalitions and domoinance hierarchies on each other, yet suchtheory is urgently needed to guide and interpret field studies inthe biological and social sciences. The development of such aformal theory also leads to advances in game-theoretic techniques. Moreover, because there are good reasons to suppose thatmechanisms for social stability are broadly similar acrossdifferent kinds of groups, the project has likely implications forconflict resolution among humans. In particular, the results ofthe project should help to resolve an ongoing controversy inanthropology between those who argue that egalitarian societiesare deliberately shaped by their members, with the political rankand file creating a "reverse dominance hierarchy," and those whostress that levelling mechanisms operate independently of people'sintentions. Finally, a central goal is to develop an online gametheory workshop for students in the life and social sciences. Allmaterials developed during the project -- in particular, numerousgame-theoretic computer programs -- are made freely availablethrough this web site. It therefore serves as a permanent legacy,with the potential to strengthen the modelling skills of everystudent of game theory.