The NYT has a fascinating article on Baboon mores, No Time for Bullies: Baboons Retool Their Culture. When a freak illness killed off the most dominant and aggressive males, the tone of the whole troop became, well, kindler and gentler. Amazingly as new males joined the troop they got socialized into the dominant culture. Two generations after the die-off, the troop was still operating on a lower stress, higher happiness level.
The implications for faculty politics are left as an exercise for the reader.
Pingback: Sour Grapes