Behavioral traits that define social dominance are the same that reduce social influence in a consensus task

Abstract

The attributes allowing individuals to attain positions of social power and dominance are common across many vertebrate social systems: aggression, intimidation, and coercion. These traits may be associated with influence, but may also be socially aversive, and thereby decrease social influence of dominant individuals. Using a social cichlid fish, we show that dominant males are aggressive, socially central, and influence group movement. Yet, dominant males are poor effectors of consensus in a more sophisticated association task compared with passive, socially peripheral subordinate males. These influential, subordinate males possess behavioral traits opposite of those generally associated with dominance, suggesting that the link between social dominance and social influence is context dependent, and behavioral traits of dominant males impede group consensus formation.