Because we are social animals who automatically situate ourselves in hierarchies with those around us, and non-managers with grey in their hair create instant c

Because we are social animals who automatically situate ourselves in hierarchies with those around us, and non-managers with grey in their hair create instant conflicts for many young adults' social-hierarchy construction reactions. We have an animal urge to defer to people who look like our parents, and another animal urge to be deferred to by our subordinates. Ironically, by the time our own hair has some grey in it most of us have gotten pretty good at understanding and resolving these conflicts, but for a 27 year old semi-alpha, the presence of an older person (especially man) in a nominally beta role can instantly raise their blood pressure.