The concepts of leadership and dominance are often conflated, with individuals high in the social hierarchy assumed to be decision-makers. Dominants can exclusively benefit from monopolizing food resources and, therefore, induce an intragroup conflict when leading their group to these resources. We demonstrate that shared decision-making reduces such conflicts by studying movement initiations of wild vulturine guineafowl, a species that forms large, stable social groups with a steep dominance hierarchy. When dominant individuals displace subordinates from monopolizable food patches, the excluded subordinates subsequently initiate collective movement. The dominants then abandon the patch to follow the direction of subordinates, contrasting with nonmonopolizable resources where no individuals are excluded, and dominant individuals contribute extensively to group decisions. Our results demonstrate the role of shared decision-making in maintaining the balance of influence within animal societies.

领导力和支配地位的概念经常混为一谈，社会等级较高的个人被认为是决策者。支配者可以完全从垄断食物资源中受益，因此在带领他们的群体获得这些资源时会引发群体内部冲突。我们通过研究野生秃鹫珍珠鸡的运动开始来证明共同决策减少了这种冲突，这种物种形成了具有陡峭的统治等级的大型、稳定的社会群体。当占主导地位的个体将下属从可垄断的食物区赶走时，被排除在外的下属随后会发起集体运动。统治者然后放弃补丁跟随下属的方向，与没有个人被排除在外的非垄断资源形成对比，占主导地位的个体对群体决策做出了广泛的贡献。我们的结果证明了共同决策在维持动物社会影响力平衡方面的作用。