Does a high social status confer greater levels of trust from groupmates? An experimental study of leadership in domestic horses.
Abstract: In collective movements, specific individuals may emerge as leaders. In this study on the domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus), we conducted experiments to establish if an individual is successfully followed due to its social status (including hierarchical rank and centrality). We first informed one horse about a hidden food location and recorded by how many it was followed when going back to this location. In this context, all horses lead their groupmates successfully. In a second step, we tested whether group members would trust some leaders more than others by removing the food before the informed individual led the group back to the food location. In addition, two control initiators with intermediate social status for which the food was not removed were tested. The results, confirmed by simulations, demonstrated that the proportions of followers for the unreliable initiator with highest social status are greater than the ones of the unreliable initiator with lowest social status. Our results suggest an existing relationship between having a high social status and a leadership role. Indeed, the status of a leader sometimes prevail at the detriment of the accuracy of the information, because an elevated social status apparently confers a high level of trust.
Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Publication Date: 2022-07-22 PubMed ID: 35872161DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104708Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
- Journal Article
Summary
This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.
The research paper investigates the hypothesis that higher social status individuals are more trusted as leaders, even if they provide incorrect information, using domestic horses as test subjects.
Methodology
- In the study, the researchers conducted two experiments involved with horse leadership and social status. The first experiment involved informing one horse about a hidden food location and observing how many other horses followed it to the food location.
- In the second experiment, researchers tested if horses with different social statuses were trusted as leaders to different extents. They removed the food before the horse, having knowledge about the location, led the rest of the group back to the food location.
- Additionally, two control initiators of intermediate social status were tested without the food being removed.
Results
- Every informed horse, regardless of its social status, was successfully able to lead its group to the food location, revealing that all horses had the potential to act as leaders.
- The findings revealed that horses were more likely to follow a high-status horse, even when the horse led them to a location where the food had been removed. The same horses, however, were less inclined to follow a low-status horse under the same circumstances.
- This pattern was further reinforced by the fact that the control initiators of intermediate social status were followed less than the high-status initiators, but more than the low-status initiators.
Conclusions
- The results solidify the concept that there seems to be a correlation between social status and a leadership role.
- The high social status horses were followed more often even when they were leading the group to a place where the food was previously located but had been removed. This suggests that, in group dynamics, social status can sometimes override the accuracy of information.
- The findings of the study therefore confirm the proposition that high social status confers a higher level of trust on an individual in a leadership role.
Cite This Article
APA
Valenchon M, Deneubourg JL, Nesterova AP, Petit O.
(2022).
Does a high social status confer greater levels of trust from groupmates? An experimental study of leadership in domestic horses.
Behav Processes, 201, 104708.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104708 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, UMR INRAE, CNRS, Université de Tours, IFCE, 37380 Nouzilly, France; Bristol Veterinary School, Langford House, Bristol BS40 5DU, United Kingdom. Electronic address: mathilde.valenchon@yahoo.fr.
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli) - Université libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
- FaunaStats, 16 avenue de l'Europe, 67300 Schiltigheim, France.
- Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, UMR INRAE, CNRS, Université de Tours, IFCE, 37380 Nouzilly, France. Electronic address: odile.petit@cnrs.fr.
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Horses
- Leadership
- Movement
- Social Status
- Trust
Citations
This article has been cited 1 times.- Valenchon M, Reigner F, Lefort G, Adriaensen H, Gesbert A, Barrière P, Gaude Y, Elleboudt F, Lévy I, Ducluzeau C, Dupont J, Lainé AL, Uszynski I, Dardente H, Poupon C, Lansade L, Calandreau L, Keller M, Barrière DA. Affiliative behaviours regulate allostasis development and shape biobehavioural trajectories in horses. Nat Commun 2026 Jan 13;17(1):47.
Use Nutrition Calculator
Check if your horse's diet meets their nutrition requirements with our easy-to-use tool Check your horse's diet with our easy-to-use tool
Talk to a Nutritionist
Discuss your horse's feeding plan with our experts over a free phone consultation Discuss your horse's diet over a phone consultation
Submit Diet Evaluation
Get a customized feeding plan for your horse formulated by our equine nutritionists Get a custom feeding plan formulated by our nutritionists
