Observations and Measurements

This chapter gives an overview of the (quantitative) observations and measurements related to hierarchy, concerning both animals and humans. Although, according to our approach, humans are deeply embedded into the animal world, in order to give room for a detailed investigation regarding the similarities and differences, we discuss animal and human hierarchy in separate sub-chapters. Special emphasis is given to the phenomenon of dominance hierarchy (which, in case of humans, is complemented by the so called cultural hierarchy), leadership, and collective decision making.