What do you think of Alpha, Beta, and Sigma Male theory?
As many of you know, nowadays, this is a very popular theory among young people. Even though some of us use these terms as a joke, some people really believe in it. I really want to hear the thoughts and feelings of people who are more experienced in life. Please share your thoughts.
Alpha Male: The term 'Alpha Male' can be defined in both a classical and modern sense. The classical definition derives from the animal kingdom and represents a physical form of dominance over other males. The alpha male lion, for example, claims sexual rights to all females, fights off other male lions to enforce it, eats first after every hunt, and dominates a vast territory of land for hunting rights.
In a modern/human sense, younger males (teens, early 20s) will subscribe to the classical form. Like a lion, they will often be the strongest, most intimidating, hit on all of the women beta males want, are usually the first to have new sexual experiences, and often dominate a set territory in their 'hunt' for new women, such as local nightclub scenes.
Older alpha males, however, will evolve the classical traits of strength, intimidation, and dominance beyond the physical by gaining power over men through their very means of living and professional reputation. A powerful business executive, for example, will hire, promote, demote and fire others according to how well they serve his own interests. Rock stars, famous actors, and other individuals of 'power' hold very similar capabilities over others in their respective professions.
Sigma Male: The introverted alpha male. They do not conform to society's standards and rather think for themselves. Sigmas have many traits often correlated with an alpha male. Although they can appear quiet to those who do not know them, they are actually outgoing once you speak to them. These people are on a similar hierarchy to an alpha male, although they are simply less extroverted and are more in tune with themselves, secretive or selfish.
Beta Male: A beta male would be the exact opposite of an Alpha male. First, notice that beta male isn't capitalized like Alpha male, and that is for a reason. Beta males are plagued with anxiety, insecurity, and are all around dominated by their peers. Beta males are unlikely to ever find success, mostly due to their lack of confidence and insufficient sexual demeanor.
Source: urbandictionary.com
This post doesn't mean that I agree with this theory. Because I like psychology and sociology I wanted to hear the thoughts of people who are older than me to have a wider perspective about this topic.
There are so many versions of this - I've seen them where the entire Greek alphabet is used. Sometimes the Beta is just an Alpha without social skills, others say Beta is better than Alpha because the patriarchy needs to die - most all of them are accompanied by a picture of Brad Pitt from nightclub next to Seth Rogan (pre weight loss of course). Normally they accompany a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' to spend $4,995 on a life changing program, in person in Arizona. Generally speaking - my experience has taught me that if someone is referring to people as alpha or beta, and not in the military call sign context, that should be the last time I listen or speak to them.
Now I'm rambling - but - I've done so many of these things for work - the four quadrants that identify work styles/personality traits, all the various tests you do to determine what you are meant to do, blah, blah. Someone is a gold/green and tries to work with a red/blue (so creative/dreamer vs. numbers/analytical/authoritative type) - how do they get along, etc.
What's unfortunate is that there is value in understanding, or trying to identify, your natural or learned proclivities towards things. How do you prefer to interact with people. Do you draw energy from people (i.e. extrovert), does social interaction wear you down (i.e. introvert) - and invariably there will be 20 combinations of those to ensure that people who don't quite fit aren't left out. Which often, then, leads to these types of categorizations driving your behavior vs. giving you anything useful - and at worst, they provide a built in value hierarchy that can be easily misused on people.
Spoken like someone who can’t understand the sigma male grindset. Here’s the key: it’s not about muscles or girls or professional success. It’s about two words:
Passive income
So if you say, I have a big dick. You do not have a big dick.
Considering sigma literally started as a parody of alpha and beta, I would say its all bullshit
Alpha male = Chad
Beta male = Soyboy
Sigma male = Autistic future school shooter with delusions??
The Holy Trinity
Whenever I think of Alpha Males, I think of gym douches who assume having biceps will save them from the self-loathing stemming from their $20k a year salary working at a health food and sups store. At the same time I also think of nerds who call themselves Alpha because they want to get one up on those with functioning love lives, and those with aspirations outside of avoiding showering. In short, all people who call themselves Alpha, are indeed cringe and gay.
It's astrology for men: there's some truth, but no enough empirical evidence or causal relationships to make it a sustainable, plausible system.
IMO there is truth to some of this. Though I know plenty of people who may be 'beta' in one area (whether it is with women, or around other men in terms of intimidation) but get them in their specialty and they can do a 180. Similarly, you can be a traditional 'alpha male' but if all of a sudden you are hanging out with a bunch of pro athletes then you will be on the lower end of the totem pole in terms of money, status, etc. and will usually behave accordingly. There are major traits that carry over but alpha / beta, but often it is very situational. Traits: Alphas are going to be more action oriented, more willing to take risk, less agreeable, less likely to seek group consensus, have some confidence either physically or socially in a situation, etc.
Situationally:
You can also take a group of nerds at a google internship and no matter what ONE of them will rise to be the 'leader/alpha' of the group. Just naturally happens. On the inverse you can take a group of men that are more traditionally alpha and among that group one or two will end up in charge as well - it just happens.
The Sigma male piece is very interesting and something I want to get to. 'Sigma Males' do exist. But make no mistake - 95% of society are either Alpha, Beta, or some variation. The majority of these Sigma male grindset tools you see online are just beta males pretending to be something else as a coping mechanism. They know they arent alpha and have no alpha traits, but pretend like they dont care about this (that's a lie) and view calling themselves a Sigma as a 'you cant fire me, I quit!' approach - as in 'you cant call me a beta, Im a sigma!'. The perfect example of a Sigma Male is someone like Alex Honnold. Dude doesnt care about money, status, social hierarchy, etc. - he just wants to climb rocks. This allows him to still achieve something remarkable. Real Sigmas dont even care about or call themselves Sigmas because they are too busy focusing on what they do (ex: writing books, music, NOT video games and TV) to care about some silly status. You dont have to be famous or world class to be a Sigma, but you certainly arent going to be calling yourself one.
Most people have shades of all the above and in certain situations can be any of them. But there are times for sure where you will meet someone and they just give off complete Alpha or Beta vibes. that much is true
I'm not an alpha male because I don't "rise to the top" and "be a leader", but I am intensely successful, charming, attractive, athletic and intelligent.
Only beta males believe in the theory.
Feel like most people says this stuff ironically and pretend to be serious to get a rise out of others.
If you say it seriously rather than ironically, it's a great way of flagging to people you have self-esteem issues.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_myth_of_the_alpha_male
Studies have shown that some "alpha" features are attractive to women ("confident", "assertive") and others are unattractive ("dominant", "demanding", "aggressive"). Similarly, women like a guy who has "beta" features such as "easygoing" and "sensitive" but not "submissive", "shy" or "quiet".
So yes, women do like alpha males, but only those who are truly successful and respected, not brutish assholes.
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Yes, but this thread is about personality, not physical attractiveness or money. If you had two guys with the same level of attractiveness and money then women would choose the ones whose personality is closest to what I described above.
The only person I've been in a relationship with is Russian. Domestic violence is decriminalized there; I can say with certainty that Russian women do not seek out aggressive or domineering men for obvious reasons.
There's a lot wrong with the survey, but first and foremost only undergrad students are surveyed (presumably from Berkeley). Assuming the methodology is correct (which I do have qualms with), is it really that surprising that feminist UMC+ females would want a soft beta hybrid male?
Regarding the methodology, the study is incredibly prone to social desirability bias (https://diversity.social/social-desirability-bias/), as well as the fact that reading paragraphs is a poor representation of an in-person interaction.
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