Social Importance of Dominance

Dominance refers to the position of an individual in a power hierarchy. Dominant individuals have preferential access to resources over other less dominant individuals. Dominance is achieved through aggression or through the perceived threat of aggression often conveyed through non-verbal communication such as body position, posture, and facial expressions such as lowered brow position and staring. Additionally in humans it can be achieved through leadership and persuasion.

Dominance plays a role in all human cultures as well as all documented primate social systems. In the case of many non-human primates, such as chimpanzees, orangutans, and rhesus macaques, it is both a major part of their social structure and a significant factor of their personality structure.