5 ms·
Are alpha males worse investors?
- znpy 9y ago"Alpha male" as a concept does not exist: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-myth-of-the-alpha-male-a7724971.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-myth-of-the-alph...
- iamthirsty 9y ago> "Alpha male" as a concept does not exist This statement is factually incorrect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_(ethology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_(ethology)
- bringtheaction 9y agoI think parent commenter meant among humans. From the very Wikipedia article you linked we also find: > In humans, the concept of an alpha male was challenged as being largely nonexistent per an article by Dean Burnett, who found that human leadership roles vary wildly based on the current social context, and traits attributed to an "Alpha" might be exhibited in one scenario, and traits attributed to a "Beta" might be exhibited in a different scenario by the same individual. Also from the same article, since wolves are often used as an example when talking about alphas: > Researcher L. David Mech, one of the primary creators of the Alpha male hypothesis for wolves, later found additional evidence that the concept of an Alpha male may have been an erroneous interpretation of incomplete data and formally disavowed this terminology in 1999. He explained that it was heavily based on the behavior of captive packs consisting of unrelated individuals, an error reflecting the once prevailing view that wild pack formation occurred in winter among independent gray wolves. Later research on wild gray wolves revealed that the pack is usually a family consisting of a breeding pair and its offspring of the previous 1–3 years. Whereas among chimps and gorillas for example we do find alpha males like the article says, but I don’t think anyone was contesting that.
- Double_a_92 9y agoBut charismatic, self-confident, and maybe good-looking men exist?
- BerislavLopac 9y agoWe do. :-P
- Pokepokalypse 9y agoMany guys like to think of themselves in this way, I'm sure.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- SFjulie1 9y agoThe scientist who coined the term Alpha (wolf) that inspired the "alpha" male BS thinks otherwise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtFgdwTsbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtFgdwTsbU He made an understandable mistake of interpretation but no one wants to correct. Science is also about accepting we erred. To err is human, to perseverate is evil.
- n4r9 9y agoThat's a very confused and uninformative article. Some of the assertions seem reasonable, but I'd much rather see articles with more substantial content being linked on HN.
- romanovcode 9y agoEven if, culturally it does because people know what it means.
- tomp 9y agoyeah the title is beyond stupid and click-bait-y. Should be changed to: New research suggests high-testosterone traders earn lower returns (the subtitle) even then, they're using "wider faces, a proxy for testosterone levels" not actual T levels.
- nukeop 9y agoThe concept of "alpha", "beta" and other greek letter males is based on a flawed study of the social dynamics of wolf packs. Not only is it inaccurate in the context of human behaviour, it has also been since found out that it doesn't model the behaviour of wolves accurately, and these categories do not exist in reality.
- sova 9y agoYeah, the whole tribe or pack of wolves operates together. True alphas don't actually assert their dominance, and you are correct that our naive interpretations of these letters and their cardinality are quite faulty. Not sure why people voted you down.
- Pokepokalypse 9y agoProblem is; people really really really seem to like to believe in this meme. They want to believe in the myth of the alpha male. They find it comforting. I think it's probably similar to supreme-being myths, and racial-superiority myths. (who doesn't like to be told they're "a member of the master-race" or "naturally inclined to dominate and lead, be entitled to privilege"?) Getting this mythology beat-down is going to be a very difficult steep uphill climb, I'm afraid. Hell, we're literally still trying to convince people the world is round.
- sova 9y agoI think of the Flat Earth "movement" as a nod and prod for people to use critical reasoning, and I don't see it as something nefarious. We don't have to convince everyone to hold the same views but we should urge people to hold beneficial views for themselves and others.
- TheCoelacanth 9y agoThe journalist is using the term "alpha male" colloquially. What was actually studied was a proxy for level of testosterone.
- sova 9y agoOh my goodness "Wide faces as a proxy for testosterone levels" Nice! I'm sure sock colors would work as a predictor of investment success just as well. What trash. The Economist is a thinly veiled pseudoscience brochure these past few years. Maybe it's always been that way and I'm just now noticing, but I used to find value in their articles and not just pseudoscientific trash.
- isolli 9y agoI don't know that you can dismiss it offhand... http://sandrarose.com/2016/06/higher-testosterone-levels-leads-to-manly-faces/ http://sandrarose.com/2016/06/higher-testosterone-levels-lea...
- zone411 9y agoExcept that there are real studies showing an association between wide faces and testosterone levels: http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(13)00027-5/abstract http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(13)00027-5/abstr... and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114283/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114283/. It's not a great proxy though.
- calvinbhai 9y agoCan the results of these studies be replicated by a completely different research team? If yes, then good. It is believable. Anything else, then it is to be taken with a generous helping of salt. I consider it a clickbait headline playing on gender biases.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- acct1771 9y agoOff-topic, but this popped into my head as something relevant to The Economist (specifically jabbing at them), and this community. https://steemit.com/economist/@subscription/fact-checking-the-infamous-1988-economist-cover-get-ready-for-a-world-currency https://steemit.com/economist/@subscription/fact-checking-th...
- Pica_soO 9y agoAt first i took the article into consideration- but then i found a photo of the author and measured the chin to brow distance- and it turns out he is a chronicle liar.
- Pokepokalypse 9y agoI think they'd have more accuracy in results if they mapped-out the contours and bumps of the subject's skulls.
- teilo 9y agoSo physiognomy is a real thing now? Are writers at the Economist worse statisticians?