Selfish Herd

A theory proposed in 1971 byW. D. Hamilton according to which the risk to an individual of predation is re¬duced if that individual places another in¬dividual between itself and the predator. When many individuals behave in this way an aggregation is the inevitable result and, because the risk is least near the cen¬tre and greatest at the edge, individuals of high social status will tend to occupy the centre and subordinate individuals will be pushed to the edge.