Dominance hierarchies are social structures in which successful creatures maintain a high, or dominant, social status—in terms of territory, resources, mating opportunities, and other valuable things—while others tend to get stuck in a low or submissive status. Though such hierarchies are most easily observed among simple creatures like lobsters, Peterson points out that they have been an enduring feature of the natural world for millennia, even persisting among humans to this day.
Dominance Hierarchies Quotes in 12 Rules for Life
The 12 Rules for Life quotes below are all either spoken by Dominance Hierarchies or refer to Dominance Hierarchies. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Rule 1
Quotes
High serotonin/low octopamine characterizes the victor. The opposite neurochemical configuration, a high ratio of octopamine to serotonin, produces a defeated-looking, scrunched-up, inhibited, drooping, skulking sort of lobster, very likely to hang around street corners, and to vanish at the first hint of trouble. Serotonin and octopamine also regulate the tail-flick reflex, which serves to propel a lobster rapidly backwards when it needs to escape. Less provocation is necessary to trigger that reflex in a defeated lobster. You can see an echo of that in the heightened startle reflex characteristic of the soldier or battered child with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Dominance Hierarchies Term Timeline in 12 Rules for Life
The timeline below shows where the term Dominance Hierarchies appears in 12 Rules for Life. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back
...that has been studied. To return to lobster society, this principle helps create a stable hierarchy, with dominant lobsters at the top and weak ones at the bottom.
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...lobster has been around for hundreds of millions of years, we can see that dominance hierarchies have been a more or less permanent feature of the natural world.
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...also a mistake to think of nature as somehow distinct from culture. Things like dominance hierarchies, though they’re often dismissed as particular cultural expressions (like the military-industrial complex, or patriarchy, for...
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Rule 11: Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
...even biological ones like sex differences, in terms of power. Things like science and competence-based hierarchies then become just examples of games of power, benefiting those who make them up.
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