What do Sex Workers, Bosses, and Baboons Have in Common?

Nothing but stress! When we think of stress, we often imagine looming deadlines, impossible workloads, and micromanaging bosses. But long before cubicles and corner offices, our evolutionary cousins were already living out a drama of hierarchy and stress, and the consequences were deadly. The work of neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky, especially his decades-long research on baboons in East Africa, offers a striking window into the ways social hierarchies harm our health.

Robert Sapolsky spent over 30 years studying a troop of wild olive baboons in the Serengeti. Like humans, these baboons live in highly stratified social systems, where rank dictates access to resources, mating opportunities, and overall power. The dominant males—the "alphas"—get first choice of food and mates, while lower-ranking males and females face harassment, less food, and constant vigilance.

What Sapolsky found is that these hierarchical dynamics are not just social but deeply biological. Lower-ranking baboons have significantly higher levels of stress hormones, particularly cortisol. Their immune systems are compromised, their wounds heal more slowly, and they suffer from higher rates of metabolic and cardiovascular problems. Essentially, the stress of being at the bottom wears them down from the inside out.

Stress Isn’t Just a Feeling

Sapolsky’s research dismantled the idea that stress is merely "in your head." In fact, it is a full-body experience that reshapes health outcomes over time. Chronic stress, especially when tied to lack of control and predictability (key features of rigid hierarchies), increases blood pressure, damages arteries, suppresses immunity, and accelerates aging.

In his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Sapolsky explains that animals in the wild usually face short-term, acute stressors—like escaping a predator. Humans (and baboons in rigid hierarchies), on the other hand, endure chronic social stress: worrying about performance reviews, dealing with office politics, or trying to navigate an unpredictable boss. This long-term exposure to stress hormones is far more damaging than the quick bursts our bodies evolved to handle.

The Unexpected Baboon Revolution

Perhaps the most fascinating finding came when Sapolsky’s original troop underwent a dramatic change. In the 1980s, a group of aggressive, high-ranking males died after eating meat tainted with tuberculosis. Suddenly, the troop's social dynamics shifted. With the most violent individuals gone, the troop became more egalitarian. Males groomed each other more, aggression plummeted, and overall stress levels dropped dramatically.

This troop maintained its "kinder, gentler" culture for years, suggesting that social structures are not fixed and can be reshaped to reduce stress and improve health.

What Does This Mean for Us?

Modern workplaces closely mirror the traditional baboon hierarchy: a few "alpha" bosses wielding power, while most workers live in various states of subordination and anxiety. Like the baboons, employees at the lower end of the social ladder face less control over their environment and more unpredictable demands—the perfect recipe for chronic stress.

Studies in humans echo Sapolsky’s findings. Workers with less autonomy and more supervision have higher rates of cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, and even early mortality. The presence of an authoritarian boss—someone who embodies the unpredictable aggression of a dominant baboon—amplifies these risks.

Rethinking Hierarchy

The lessons from baboons suggest that rigid hierarchies are not only unjust but biologically harmful. When workplaces become more collaborative and give individuals more control over their schedules, projects, and interactions, stress decreases and health improves. Reducing the dominance of "boss culture" might not only make employees happier but also literally save lives.

Ultimately, Sapolsky’s baboons show us that social structures can change—even among our primate relatives. We don’t have to accept toxic bosses or top-heavy hierarchies as natural or inevitable. Instead, we can learn to build environments where cooperation replaces domination, and where health and well-being come before the pecking order.

Some sex worker orgs claim that you can’t make sex workers work in a brothel; however, the existence of private capital is a tremendous stressor as it holds influence over entire marketplaces, and adds strain and competition to the individual freelance sex worker. After all, the entire goal of a business is to maximize profit for the owner, who does not have skin in the game.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK242456/ 

https://bigthink.com/plus/understanding-the-effect-of-human-hierarchies/ 

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698