An individual’s capacity to win contests over a particular resource, given their size, strength, motivation, experience, and current state.

Resource holding potential is one of the concepts that has complicated simple dominance hierarchy views of animal social life. Rather than dominance being a fixed property of individuals, contest outcomes turn out to be predictable from a combination of factors: physical size and strength, motivation to obtain the resource, prior experience with the specific opponent, current state (hunger, fatigue, injury), and contextual factors. The same individual may win in some contests and lose in others, depending on the specific combination of factors.

The horse who wins access to a feed bin is usually the horse who is most motivated to win it on that particular day, not necessarily the horse who would always win all contests. Hunger, recent meal timing, individual preference for the specific food, and the relationship history with the specific other individual all contribute to the outcome. The same applies in many other contest contexts across species. A dog who has been chewing a particular toy may successfully retain it against a larger and ordinarily more dominant household-mate, because the dog’s motivation to keep the specific toy on that occasion outweighs the size differential. Sheep at a water trough work out access through resource holding potential rather than through any fixed ranking, with hot and thirsty individuals consistently winning contests against cooler and less thirsty ones regardless of overall social position.

This framework helps explain several observations that simple linear hierarchy frameworks struggle with. Why does the apparent dominance relationship between two individuals sometimes reverse depending on context? Why does the introduction of a different food or different physical setting change the outcome? Why do contests within established pairs sometimes have surprising outcomes? Resource holding potential frameworks accommodate all of these as expected consequences of the multi-factor nature of contest outcomes.

The concept also has implications for management. A horse who is consistently being out-competed for food is not necessarily lower in some abstract ranking; they may be lacking motivation due to other social or environmental factors, or they may face a specific bilateral relationship that disadvantages them. The intervention is to address the specific factors rather than to reorganise the abstract ranking.

Resource holding potential is one of several concepts that has contributed to the modern move away from simple linear hierarchy frameworks toward more nuanced models of animal social life.