Reader question:

What does this sentence – It seems their whole pecking order in the pub revolves around how soon I acknowledge them and how long I talk to them – mean? Specifically what is "pecking order"?

My comments:

That sentence means that if, upon walking into the pub you nod to someone ahead of others in the group you make them feel important. Likewise, if you talk to, say, Tom for 10 minutes but only 6 seconds to Jerry, you make Tom look good and you make Jerry feel miserable.

Pecking order is the order in which birds take their turns to peck (eat). As Oxford Dictionary points out, pecking order is a "social hierarchy, as originally observed among hens".

As leaders of the pack, head hens (I like this, head hens) get to eat, drink and mate ahead of others. Among wolves and other beasts, it's the alpha male who gets to do the same things first. Among humans, leaders of a nation, heads of a company, school, family, etc, get to enjoy similar privileges, such as being able to walk in the front, or sit in the center, or speak first and for hours, or pick the best meat from the table.

In short, pecking order denotes the rankings observable in all types of societies, human or inhuman – I mean human or otherwise.

Here are examples to further illustrate the point.

1. The Final Word: Second-born kids face realities of the pecking order

Week after week, we read about the results of studies that researchers have just released.

Playing with fire can cause burns. Drinking bleach is dangerous to your health. Blondes still have more fun. And so on.

So I was hardly surprised last week when I read about new research on 21,000 people that finds firstborn children get more parental attention — 3,000 hours more — than their siblings. Not only that, but more quality time is spent with firstborns even as they get older.

I could have saved those researchers at Brigham Young University a lot of time and money. All they needed to do was call. I'm a second child. My brother, Gary, is three years older.

Gary had 36 months of undivided attention before I arrived on the scene. And now it's proven he got undivided attention after I arrived, too. Not that I didn't already know.

I'm not saying I was abused, ignored or left on the hillside to fend off the wolves. I'm just asking where my baby album is.

I remember cleaning out the attic with my mom a few years ago, and we came upon Gary's. There was page after page of photographs of a fat farm baby. Gary arriving home from the hospital. Gary on a blanket. Gary with his teddy bear.

I then asked where my baby album was. Mom just mumbled. She finally confessed she wasn't sure there was one.

It was then I realized what we second children have long known: To the victor go the spoils, the victor being he who arrives at the finish line first. The firstborn.

- USAToday.com, February 19, 2008

2. Sir Alex shunts Liverpool down the pecking order

Like a teenager obsessed with craptastic Australian soap operas, Sir Alex Ferguson cannot get enough of the drama at Anfield. In his latest utterance S'Alex stuck his oar in over Liverpool's attractiveness to players, saying, according to The Sun:

"Most players want to play for Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool. But when they see a club they think is topsy-turvy, with a divide between the manager and the directors, then they might think twice. When the choice comes, they want to join a stable club."

So is Fergie-Ferg right, are players going to start turning their noses up at Liverpool?

- www.caughtoffside.com, January 24, 2008

3. Chickens have a very complex social behavior. When the birds are maintained in small groups they will usually form a stable "peck order" (or hierarchy) among themselves. The highest number of birds that can maintain a stable hierarchy is unknown, but it seems to be somewhere between 20 and 100 chickens. If the peck order system is established, some chickens will be dominants and others will be subordinates; sometimes organized in a perfect linear dominance hierarchy. Dominants have priority of access to feed and water and nearly all other resources (including mates if they are in mixed mature groups). Although subordinates will have to wait for access to resources, the benefit they receive from this social system is a dramatic reduction in aggressive interactions.

However, when we deal with large numbers of birds it seems that the establishment of such a peck order is impossible, because the birds are incapable of individually recognizing every member of the group (required for establishing a peck order). When this happens, conflict or "social tension" is created. As a consequence, dominant chickens will monopolize access to resources, while subordinate birds cannot obtain access to food or water. This has been the traditional scientific explanation for the reduction in performance seen with increasing densities.

- Bird Density: How It Can Affect the Behavior and Health of Your Flock, www.thepoultrysite.cn, August, 1999.

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.