Dominance in ethology is an "individual's preferential access to resources over another." Dominance in the context of biology and anthropology is the state of having high social status relative to one or more other individuals, who react submissively to dominant individuals. This enables the dominant individual to obtain access to resources such as food or potential mates at the expense of the submissive individual, without active aggression. The absence or reduction of aggression means unnecessary energy expenditure and the risk of injury are reduced for both. The opposite of dominance is submissiveness.