this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 121 points 8 months ago (3 children)

There's no wolf alphas in nature neither. It's an old and debunked theory based on studying captive wolves.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 101 points 8 months ago (4 children)

To be absolutely clear to anyone who hasn't read about this; it was debunked by the same guy who came up with it in the first place!

The dude studied wolves in captivity, drew conclusions about their behaviour, then applied those studies to wolves in the wild and discovered that he'd got it all wrong. The behaviours that he observed in captive wolves were all stress responses.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 49 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because he’s a good scientist. He followed the evidence, ran a different experiment to test his findings, and followed the evidence again.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 months ago

Absolutely. He had the courage to question his own assumptions when they were challenged by new evidence. Everyone could stand to learn from him.

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So, what I'm hearing is that there are human alpha males... but only in prisons. That checks out.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 20 points 8 months ago

No no you've got it backwards. Those are just stress responses. Human alphas do exist but you have to put them in the wild with a hungry pack of wolves.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, the alpha male thing in humanity is also a stress response.

[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 months ago

Well then I'm alpha as fuck.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Didn't he also put a bunch of adolescent wolves together for that? It was basically a lupine Lord of the Flies in there.

[–] tooclose104@lemmy.ca 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I found this too be quite interesting:

Toxoplasmosis and Wolves

To me, this makes all the "I'm an alpha, like a wolf" bumble even funnier. Nah, you're just a cat person with poop on the brain.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 points 8 months ago

That is an interesting article, thanks for sharing!