<p>Dominance and prestige are two strategies people use to attain high social rank in their groups. Dominance relies on the use of coercion and force, whereas prestige relies on sharing expertise and knowledge and serving as a role model. Although we know much about the behavior of dominant and prestigious leaders, we know much less about basic mental representations that guide people’s understanding of dominance and prestige. Two experiments tested predictions regarding spatial representations that may reflect people’s understanding of the two leadership strategies. Both experiments indicated that, compared to avatars representing dominant leaders, avatars representing prestigious male leaders were placed in closer physical proximity to subordinate group members. Findings align with work in proxemics and suggest that people conceptualize prestigious (relative to dominant) male leaders as more embedded within the groups they serve. Broader discussion centers on contributions of the current work to literature on group behavior and social cognition.</p>