The term “alpha male” has been used to describe everything from CEOs to dating personalities. But a new scientific study suggests dominance might not be as natural as we’ve been led to believe.
The study, published Monday, July 7, in PNAS, analyzed research from May 2020 to July 2024. Researchers studied more than 100 primate species, including various monkeys and lemurs, and found that male-dominated hierarchies are actually rare.
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In only 17% of populations, males won more than 90% of male-female contests. In contrast, 83% of populations showed either shared dominance or females occasionally winning power.
Researchers used phylogenetically controlled models to account for how closely species are related. They tested five evolutionary hypotheses to explain sex-biased dominance:
- Reproductive control
- Female competition
- Offspring safety
- Female bonding
- Self-organization based on sex ratios
Where did females dominate?
Female dominance appeared more often in species that were monogamous or tree-dwelling, which gave females more space to avoid male coercion. Dominance was also common in species where males and females are about the same size (known as sexual monomorphism) or in societies with high levels of female-on-female competition.
Bonobos were one of the clearest examples of females holding social power over males.
This species is one of humans’ closest relatives. In some populations studied, female bonobos won up to 79% of intersexual contests. The reason for this could be related to female bonobos having unreliable fertility signals.
“Males never know when they are ovulating or not. As a result, (the female bonobos) can mate with whoever they want, whenever they want, much more easily,” Elise Huchard, a primatologist at the University of Montpellier told AFP per France 24.
The researchers included data from both captive and wild primates, finding no significant difference in dominance patterns between the two.
How did “alpha male” originate?
The term “alpha male” originated from American biologist David Mech’s 1970 book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” which described dominant male wolves in captivity.
However, Mech later recanted the term “alpha.” After observing wild wolves, he realized packs function more like families, with parents leading naturally through reproduction, not dominance.
“In actuality, the way they get there is by mating with a member of the opposite sex, producing a bunch of offspring, which are the rest of the pack, then becoming the natural leaders that way,” Mech said in a 2008 YouTube presentation.
The rise of the “sigma”
The modern internet culture has popularized a new concept: the “sigma male.” The term refers to a self-reliant, independent man who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, much like a “lone wolf.”
Coined by far-right activist Theodore Robert Beale in the 2010s, sigma males are often portrayed as effortlessly successful and uninterested in dominance games. According to Dictionary.com, Beale said alpha males resent sigmas because they must work harder to achieve what sigmas do easily.
While some praise the idea, critics argue it reinforces toxic masculinity. That debate reached children’s media recently when an animated Dora the Explorer video used the term “sigma” in a now-deleted social media post from May. The cartoon tells adults it’s ok to be themselves. Dora describes it as someone who is “confident” and a “leader and trendsetter.”
“Next time you see someone doing something totally independent and cool,” Dora said, “you can say, ‘That’s so sigma!’”
The post was quickly pulled after backlash. Viewers commented things like “I can’t believe this is real” and “whoever thought of this should be behind bars,” according to screenshots obtained by Daily Mail before the post was deleted.
How do primate studies relate to humans?
Hucard tells AFP there are still many differences between humans and primates.
“These results corroborate quite well with what we know about male-female relationships among hunter-gatherers, which were more egalitarian than in the agricultural societies that emerged later,” she said.
Humans fall into a middle category because neither males nor females have strict dominance over the other.
