08-07-2025
Are ‘alpha males' a myth? For most primates, the answer is yes.
Observations of 'alpha male' behavior among apes — including some of humans' closest relatives in the animal kingdom — have helped shape the archetype of the dominant male into a controversial touchstone of modern culture.
But a sweeping analysis of power dynamics between male and female primates confirms that the alpha male is in fact relatively rare across 121 species of primates, finding that sex-based hierarchies across the vast order are more fluid — and successfully contested more frequently — than was historically assumed.
