For a long time, most scientists believed that early human hunter-gatherer societies were mostly equal, with little hierarchy or leadership, and that strong inequalities only emerged later with farming and complex societies. However, new research out of Arizona State University is challenging this. Archaeological finds, ethnographic studies and now psychological research suggest that inequality in influence—who people listen to, copy, and follow—may have been part of human societies deep into our evolutionary past. The research has been published in Nature Communications.
