I always thought the "alpha male" is the one who calls the shots. That's it. I never saw any relation to animals. Most likely the "alpha animal" model was used as a parallel, but you cannot deny the role. It's self evident almost everywhere. Someone is calling the shots. If you do not obey them there are consequences.
At your workplace that is your boss. If you do not do what is required of you, the consequences are that you get fired. They are real and tangible and unavoidable, if you disobey.
How does disproving the alpha thing in wolves change anything about how we interact? People who hold power over other people will still use it, no matter what we call it. This is a simple game theory issue, changing words and descriptions won't change the fundamentals of it.
The role for what people "incorrectly" called "alpha male" is not one we "agree" on, it's one that is self evident by the power such individual holds in that group. This has nothing to do with what I or you or anyone thinks of it. You can ignore such an individual, or you cannot. If you can ignore them, they do not have that power over you. If you cannot ignore the repercussions then they do indeed have that power over you. That's pretty much all there is to it. Changing what we call it won't change their behavior or the outcome of these kinds of interactions.
For example gorillas do have alpha-males in the group, they are the silverbacks. Not obeying them leads to real consequences.
edit: Just for clarity's sake, I am no fan of "that" masculinity model, I'm just talking about the reality of things, almost everywhere on this planet. Of-course there's all kinds of exceptions but they aren't really important in the grand scheme of things.
I don't think it's anything other than electric activity, but it's clearly not "some electrical signal". It's the totality of them. They are many, and complicated. And they seem to be required for consciousness. Doubt there's any proven conscious state in a human, lacking electrical activity in the brain.
Re just electrical activity, I think you can add empirical evidence it's chemical as well as beer and other substances can affect your perception of reality.
There was an AMA about conjoined twins on Reddit a couple of years ago, and one of the interesting parts was that they could each sense how the other twin is feeling in terms of emotions. This is due to a lot of emotional states being based on hormones that flow through their shared blood stream.
How does disproving the alpha thing in wolves change anything about how we interact? People who hold power over other people will still use it, no matter what we call it. This is a simple game theory issue, changing words and descriptions won't change the fundamentals of it.
The role for what people "incorrectly" called "alpha male" is not one we "agree" on, it's one that is self evident by the power such individual holds in that group. This has nothing to do with what I or you or anyone thinks of it. You can ignore such an individual, or you cannot. If you can ignore them, they do not have that power over you. If you cannot ignore the repercussions then they do indeed have that power over you. That's pretty much all there is to it. Changing what we call it won't change their behavior or the outcome of these kinds of interactions.
For example gorillas do have alpha-males in the group, they are the silverbacks. Not obeying them leads to real consequences.
edit: Just for clarity's sake, I am no fan of "that" masculinity model, I'm just talking about the reality of things, almost everywhere on this planet. Of-course there's all kinds of exceptions but they aren't really important in the grand scheme of things.
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