The effects of castration and androgen on the social dominance of BALB/cJ male mice

In this study, we investigated the effect of social environment on circadian patterns in activity by group housing either six male or six female mice together in a cage, under regular light–dark cycles. Based on the interactions among the animals, the social dominance rank of individual mice was quantitatively established by calculating Elo ratings. Our results indicated that, during our experiment, the social dominance hierarchy was rapidly established, stable yet complex, often showing more than one dominant mouse and several subordinate mice. Moreover, we found that especially dominant male mice, but not female mice, displayed a significantly higher fraction of their activity during daytime. This resulted in reduced rhythm amplitude in dominant males. After division into separate cages, male mice showed an enhancement of their 24 h rhythm, due to lower daytime activity. Recordings of several physiological parameters showed no evidence for reduced health as a potential consequence of reduced rhythm amplitude. For female mice, transfer to individual housing did not affect their daily activity pattern. We conclude that 24 h rhythms under light–dark cycles are influenced by the social environment in males but not in females, and lead to a decrement in behavioural rhythm amplitude that is larger in dominant mice.

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An Adolescent Sensitive Period for Social Dominance Hierarchy Plasticity Is Regulated by Cortical Plasticity Modulators in Mice

Frontiers in Neural Circuits ◽

10.3389/fncir.2021.676308 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Lucy K. Bicks ◽

Michelle Peng ◽

Alana Taub ◽

Schahram Akbarian ◽

Hirofumi Morishita

Keyword(s):

Social Dominance ◽

Dominance Hierarchy ◽

Behavioral Plasticity ◽

Cortical Plasticity ◽

Developmental Trajectory ◽

Adolescent Male ◽

Sensitive Period ◽

Male Mice ◽

Dominance Hierarchies ◽

The Social

Social dominance hierarchies are a common adaptation to group living and exist across a broad range of the animal kingdom. Social dominance is known to rely on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain region that shows a protracted developmental trajectory in mice. However, it is unknown to what extent the social dominance hierarchy is plastic across postnatal development and how it is regulated. Here we identified a sensitive period for experience-dependent social dominance plasticity in adolescent male mice, which is regulated by mechanisms that affect cortical plasticity. We show that social dominance hierarchies in male mice are already formed at weaning and are highly stable into adulthood. However, one experience of forced losing significantly reduces social dominance during the adolescent period but not in adulthood, suggesting adolescence as a sensitive period for experience-dependent social dominance plasticity. Notably, robust adolescent plasticity can be prolonged into adulthood by genetic deletion of Lynx1, a molecular brake that normally limits cortical plasticity through modulation of cortical nicotinic signaling. This plasticity is associated with increased activation of established nodes of the social dominance network including dorsal medial PFC and medial dorsal thalamus evidenced by increased c-Fos. Pharmacologically mediated elevation of cortical plasticity by valproic acid rapidly destabilizes the hierarchy of adult wildtype animals. These findings provide insight into mechanisms through which increased behavioral plasticity may be achieved to improve therapeutic recovery from psychiatric disorders that are associated with social deficits.

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Social dominance mediates behavioral adaptation to chronic stress in a sex-specific manner

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.58723 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stoyo Karamihalev ◽

Elena Brivio ◽

Cornelia Flachskamm ◽

Rainer Stoffel ◽

Mathias V Schmidt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Stress ◽

Social Dominance ◽

Behavioral Outcomes ◽

Group Living ◽

Social Hierarchy ◽

Behavioral Adaptation ◽

The Social ◽

Specific Manner ◽

Behavioral Monitoring ◽

Influence Behavior

Sex differences and social context independently contribute to the development of stress-related disorders. However, less is known about how their interplay might influence behavior and physiology. Here we focused on social hierarchy status, a major component of the social environment in mice, and whether it influences behavioral adaptation to chronic stress in a sex-specific manner. We used a high-throughput automated behavioral monitoring system to assess social dominance in same-sex, group-living mice. We found that position in the social hierarchy at baseline was a significant predictor of multiple behavioral outcomes following exposure to chronic stress. Crucially, this association carried opposite consequences for the two sexes. This work demonstrates the importance of recognizing the interplay between sex and social factors and enhances our understating of how individual differences shape the stress response.

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Ambivalent Speciesism Scale: Development, Validity and Reliability

Nesne Psikoloji Dergisi ◽

10.7816/nesne-08-18-09 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (18) ◽

Keyword(s):

Animal Rights ◽

Social Dominance ◽

Animal Ethics ◽

High Reliability ◽

Social Dominance Orientation ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Validity And Reliability ◽

The Social ◽

Orientation Scale ◽

Animal Use

The aim of this study is to develop a scale compatible with current animal ethics studies to measure the phenomenon of speciesism, that is marginalization of animals and prejudice and discrimination against animals. In order to develop the Ambivalent Speciesism Scale, an item pool was created by examining the animal ethics literature and social psychology studies on human-animal relations, and then the items were edited by taking the opinions of people studying animal rights and experts in measurement and evaluation in psychology. The scale is designed in 7-point Likert type. The trial form was applied to the participants together with the Speciesism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale and the Basic Empathy Scale. Participants were selected from individuals representing different lifestyles in the context of animal use, using the snowball sampling technique. The study was conducted with 288 participants; 64 men, 217 women and, 7 of whom are not of both genders. While there were 24 items in the trial form of the scale, nine of these items were eliminated as a result of the factor analysis. The final form of the scale with 15 items has a high reliability (.90). The items of the scale are divided into three dimensions: belief in human superiority, protective speciesism, and speciesism in language. It was determined that the scores obtained from the scale were in positive correlation with the scores obtained from the other scale measuring speciesism and the social dominance orientation scale, as expected. The scores obtained from the scale are distributed as expected among the groups that include lifestyles related to animal use. These data were evaluated as findings showing the validity of the scale. Keywords Speciesism, ambivalent speciesism scale, animal rights, discrimination, animal ethics

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Experiments in political psychology

10.31234/osf.io/c2a6b ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kyle Fischer ◽

Quentin Atkinson ◽

Ananish Chaudhuri

Keyword(s):

Social Dominance ◽

Political Ideology ◽

Ultimatum Game ◽

Social Dominance Orientation ◽

Right Wing ◽

Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽

The Social ◽

Orientation Scale ◽

The Right ◽

Social Conservatism

This chapter provides an overview of studies that use incentivised experiments to study political ideology. We look first at studies that conceptualise political ideology along a unidimensional liberal-conservative spectrum and explore whether there are behavioural differences between liberals and conservatives. While recent studies find that liberals display more pro-sociality, many other studies find that liberals and conservatives display similar levels of pro-social, ingroup-biased, normative, and punitive behaviour. We then turn to experiments that study two-dimensional political ideology as embodied in the concepts of economic conservatism/progressivism (often measured with the Social Dominance Orientation scale) and social conservatism/progressivism (usually measured with the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale). In such experiments, economic conservatives display lower levels of pro-sociality and universalism and greater tolerance of inequality and tendencies to harm outgroups. Social conservatives tend to display “groupishness”, including distrusting anonymous strangers, cooperating with ingroup members, following rules, punishing in the ultimatum game, and sometimes harming outgroups.

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Increased Conformity to Social Hierarchy Under Public Eyes

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636801 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Daeeun Kim ◽

JuYoung Kim ◽

Hackjin Kim

Keyword(s):

Social Status ◽

Social Dominance ◽

Social Rank ◽

Social Dominance Orientation ◽

Social Hierarchy ◽

Negative Evaluation ◽

Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽

The Public ◽

Individual Preferences ◽

The Social

Why would people conform more to others with higher social positions? People may place higher confidence in the opinions of those who rank higher in the social hierarchy, or they may wish to make better impressions on people of higher social status. We investigated how individual preferences for novel stimuli are influenced by the preferences of others in the social hierarchy and whether anonymity affects such preference changes. After manipulation of their social rank, participants were asked to indicate how much they liked or disliked a series of images. Then, they were shown the rating given to each image by a partner (either inferior or superior in social rank) and were given a chance to adjust their ratings. The participants were more likely to change their preferences to match those of a superior partner in the public vs. private condition. The tendency to conform to the views of the superior partner was stronger among those with higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and those with greater fear of negative evaluation (FNE) by others. Altogether, the findings suggest that the motivation to make better impressions on people of higher social status can be the major driver of conformity to others with higher social positions.

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