The dynamics of dominance: open questions, challenges, and solutions
Although social hierarchies are widely recognized as dynamic systems, they have historically been treated as static entities for practical reasons. Here, we ask what can we learn from a dynamical view of dominance that we can’t learn from a static perspective, and provide an agenda for exploring the dynamics of dominance hierarchies over the next decades. We identify five broad questions regarding the dynamics of dominance at the individual, dyadic, and group levels. Although challenges remain for answering these questions, we propose avenues for overcoming them. We identify some conceptual areas that currently lack clarity in the literature and suggest refinement of dominance dynamics concepts to overcome these issues. We show that further methodological advances are needed to reliably infer dynamics at the group and individual level. At the dyadic level, we suggest theoretical model development paired with tests in captive systems as the most promising way forward. Across scales, model systems where rank can be manipulated will be extremely useful for targeted testing of hypotheses about the dynamics of dominance hierarchies. Long-term individual-based studies will also be critical for understanding the impact of rare events, and for interrogating dynamics that unfold over lifetimes and generations.