Picture of a Young Man
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In 2025, the New York Times released a report indicating that young men and boys are falling behind on key factors within education, mental health, and transitioning into adulthood. According to this report, young men are outnumbered in college enrollment, have significantly higher rates of completed suicides, and take longer to reach adult milestones such as leaving the family home. There’s consensus that being male isn’t the problem, but that a major contributing factor is how society, including health care providers, view males. A 2023 report on the website for the Association of American Medical Colleges stated that though males die by suicide at a rate four times higher than woman, men are given formal diagnoses of depression and mood disorders at a significant lower rate than women. This report also argued that society tends to blame men for their struggles, which often leads to unhealthy attitudes and perceptions about being a man. These unhealthy attitudes and perceptions can lead to unhealthy coping and decreased help-seeking for many men, which could negatively impact their mental health.
Having an accurate understanding of concepts regarding male identity is vital for many emerging adults. A 2022 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology argued that gender identity affects self-image. A 2024 article on TheConversation.com, a global platform of articles written by academic experts, described the impact of dating apps on modern masculinity. Furthermore, as discussed in a 2022 report by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, there’s concern about the impact of toxic masculinity. Male identity is a multi-faceted construct, but the concept of “alpha male” has garnered mainstream attention, even though the alpha male theory has been debunked and overlooks fundamental aspects of the human experience.
What is the Alpha Male Theory?
The “alpha male” theory largely originated from David Mech’s work on studying the behavior of wolf packs. According to a 2022 report on DaveMech.org, an “alpha wolf” was originally thought to be a male who competed with other wolves to become the leader of the pack. The concept of being an alpha has been applied to human behavior by suggesting a high value for those who can intimidate others through dominance, have aggressive personalities, and behave in ways that impose their will onto others.
Convincing young men to be an alpha has become a part of mainstream industries. An example is a 2015 post on Alpham.com, which listed described tips regarding how young men can become an alpha male. A 2016 report on Business Insider is another example, in which comments from politicians about grabbing women without consent was described as, “two alpha guys in a thing.”
Why the Alpha Male Theory Has Been Debunked?
The presence of the alpha male theory in mainstream media suggests that many individuals do not realize that this theory has been debunked. A 2023 report on Scientificamerican.com highlighted how even David Mech rebutted the original theory. According to this report, wolf packs are mainly families who are led by a breeding pair as opposed to a dominate male. This report highlighted how the observations which contributed to the alpha male theory were based on wolves in captivity, in which there were no adult shared kinship. Thus, these wolves started behaving in ways similar to how humans typically behave in a prison in order to establish a dominate hierarchy. This report further suggested that when wolves are in their natural habitat, infighting for dominance, as well as general family conflict, is basically unheard of.
Rethinking the concept of Alpha Males
The report on Scientificamerican.com discussed the concept of alpha male as a myth. If so, the translation of the original observations of wolf packs to human behaviors has been a misapplication. An accurate application would suggest that natural leaders of the pack are those who can maintain strong attachment bonds, work effectively in a partnership, generally avoid conflict, strive to be a good provider, and foster security. It’s easy to imagine the impact on many emerging adults, and most of society, if these qualities were highly valued as being a true alpha.
