Abstract: Hierarchical networks are prevalent in nature and society, corresponding to groups of actors - animals, humans or even robots - organised according to a pyramidal structure with decision makers at the top and followers at the bottom. While this phenomenon is seemingly universal, the underlying governing principles are poorly understood. Here we study the emergence of hierarchies in groups of people playing a simple dot guessing game in controlled experiments, lasting for about 40 rounds, conducted over the Internet. During the games, the player...
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