Some of the many articles about it:

The notion that wolves fight amongst each other and the strongest becomes the “alpha” and the weakest is the “omega” and all that, is a misconception that has been debunked ages ago, and even the author of the study who called them “alphas” in the first place is pleading with his old publisher to stop printing the dang book already so this misconception can finally die out.

Wolf packs are more or less just families. One “breeding pair” and their pups, which often stay with their parents way into adulthood.

51 points

A lot of guys have started calling themselves sigma males, but i just approach them and tell them I’m a Smegma male which is over a sigma male. 😤 these are facts that cannot be disputed.

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4 points

Would you like cheese on that?

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4 points
*

🧀 🍆

They’re just jealous because Smegma males come with built in flavor enhancers. Women crave for our taste and scent. 😤💪🏼

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22 points

Me? I’m a Ligma male.

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8 points

Me? I’m more of a π-male myself

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6 points

Oh yeah? I’ll bet you use USPS like a schmuck. Your “package” “came” in the “mail” 😤 I think not.

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2 points

Be a gamma make and hulk out!

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2 points

As I’m from Brazil, I proud myself in being lambda (the spelling is very close to “lambida”, or “a lick”)

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26 points

I just call them good doggos. Is that okay?

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20 points

wood doggo

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209 points

Considering the original study only documented Wolves in captivity I explain it like this: Alpha, Beta, Sigma, whatever, is just the type of prison bitch you’d be, so congrats.

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114 points

Exactly this. Put any one species into a tiny depressing enclosure with way too many strangers and way too little food, and they will fight and establish a pecking order eventually. This has nothing to do with how the same species would behave in the wild and with enough resources to live comfortably, and the author realized that mistake years ago and is since trying to correct it.

But I guess the entire “alpha male” thing is just too popular with certain people … ahem.

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24 points
*

I chuckle inside and exit the room at the first chance when someone non-jokingly refers to themselves as an alpha male. And that’s not because I’m afraid of them–the fact is that I’m the alpha male.

/s

Humans in packed cities could be described in a similar way though, if there’s not a social reinforcement in place, by the community elders who are respected and followed, to keep them from it. I live in a medium sized city now because of work, but even still I can relate to the rats [I’m aware of the studies flaws].

Put any one species into a [packed] depressing [space] with way too many strangers and way too [varied amounts of resources per individual], and they will fight and establish a pecking order eventually. This has nothing to do with how the same species would behave in the wild and with enough resources to live comfortably.

I grew up in the country with tens of acres and my nearest neighbor was a mile away. Separated from the small town nearby by a river and surrounded by thick hedgerows going miles around in every direction, with a huge open space (fields) between our house and the hedgerows. I’ve never been happy in the city. No matter where I am, I feel like I’m in a cage. I’m not agoraphobic but there’s a sense of being ‘watched’ when I leave my house that just isn’t there when you live in a remote area. All the people, sights, sounds, smells can be incredibly overwhelming at times.

I am only capable of attaining a true level of peace when I’m in nature.

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0 points

yeah no this is a bad take, humans are arguably the single most social species on earth and cities are where almost everyone lives for a damn good reason.

It’s not healthy for most people to live isolated in the countryside, we need a community to maintain mental health.

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16 points

Also a great argument for the fact that caging humans doesn’t change anything in a positive direction. Especially when you enslave them too like in countries with barbaric penal systems such as the US.

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14 points

The sad part is that a no small amount of prisons (especially “for profit” prisons) don’t have the end goal of rehabiliting the inmates in the first place. It’s all about cheap labor. They don’t want to change anything into a positive direction.

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13 points

Funny that pecking order is something you see in chickens. So these human alpha males are copying hen behavior.

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9 points

We see it chickens that are in a prison like environment.

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18 points

Whether or not it’s a real concept doesn’t matter to these people, all that matters is whether it appeals to their pre conceived notions or not.

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2 points

What is life but just a series of prisons?

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9 points

I mean if you believed that shit in the first place you’re probably not going to believe this post eh

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73 points

Ironically its that they don’t have “alphas” in the wild because they just separate and leave each other alone…

For humans in school, prisons, and even just work environments we’re a lot more like captive wolves than wild

This terminology arose from research done on captive wolf packs in the mid-20th century—but captive packs are nothing like wild ones, Mech says. When keeping wolves in captivity, humans typically throw together adult animals with no shared kinship. In these cases, a dominance hierarchy arises, Mech adds, but it’s the animal equivalent of what might happen in a human prison, not the way wolves behave when they are left to their own devices.

That being said, any person describing themselves as an alpha is usually a big piece of shit.

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57 points

Personally, I like the “alpha as in new software” approach: Alpha version = unstable, missing important features, filled with flaws, prone to breakdown and not fit for the public.

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6 points

That’s pretty accurate

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7 points

Oh I’m definitely stealing this my dear. That’s gold

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3 points

I can see myself coming up to a Alfa dude and say "are you Alfa Wolf as in a wolf stuck in captivity or Alfa Wolf as in the first and incomplete version of a wolf

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3 points

I actually met and interviewed Mech some years ago while working on a story regarding wolves in Oregon. He was a kind and very approachable person.

Fun fact; his name is pronounced “Meech,” not “mech” as in “mechanic.”

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