Winner effects, loser effects and dominance hierarchies: a game-theoretic analysis
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons
on Sabbatical from the Department of Mathematics
Florida State University
Abstract
A remarkable feature of social relations among animals is the
persistence of linear dominance hierarchies, in which no individuals are of equal or indeterminate rank.
Their persistence is often attributed to winner and loser effects, i.e., higher probabilities during contest
behaviour of a win after a win and of a loss after a loss. Such prior-experience effects have been widely
observed in empirical work. Some of these studies have detected only loser effects; others have detected both winner and
loser effects; but no study to date has detected only a winner effect. Why? A game-theoretic model suggests the answer.
