Alpha Males

I looked at bunch of test, took a few, some offer some pretty lame answers when it comes to choice in an effort to make the test a one size fit all. I also think most of the tests are for younger more politically correct crowd. What I did find is that there are common traits that most Alpha males have. I decided to answer those questions in a straight forward and honest fashion.

Are you an Alpha male? 9 common traits

They are keenly aware of status.
This is true for me, in any social setting I pay attention to who is in the center of the conversations, who is leading and who is listening. Who sits in the front of the room, who hangs towards the back. Status can mean lots of things, in the right crowd the best ping pong player commands the rooms attention, it might not mean shit in real life, but here the best player is king. In other crowds it is who makes the most money, who runs things, it is not hard when watching people to figure out where each of the people fit it. I admit to be very conscious of this.

They tend to be good looking.

I will leave that for you to decide, my picture is in my avatar with my son and daughter. I will have to admit to being vain enough that I don't mind sharing a picture of my sixty year old self

They are effective leaders in their peer groups
As I said in at the other posts, I have been the president of couple groups and held political office for 8 years. I was even a moderator for years at the other writing forums.com site. Not one to sit on the side lines I get involved in what I do.

They are confident.

I have confidence in places where none should exist. I am an honest to goodness experts in a couple of fields and take a lot of pride in to learning the nuts and bolts of just about everything. I was a kickboxer for years, the saying back then was that, training breeds confidence in the ring. What the really means is that you are familiar with being hurt, the unknown and being pushed beyond your limits. I have been in 14 businesses since I was 18 I have made more mistakes than most, accomplished more than most. I have never been shy about trying something new and failing. The biggest mistake you can make in life is not taking a chance and not giving it everything you got. To try and fail is not necessary failure.

They are extroverts

In at the Briggs and Myers personality tests, I am an extrovert, I make friends where ever I go and love to chat up strangers, if there were degrees of being extroverted I am sure I would be at the extreme end of things.

They are visionary.

I was not sure how to answer this part. I am long term in my business plans, years worth. At the same time I don't ever worry about tomorrow or what I will be doing in the future. In business things take time to mature, I am patient, not sure I would use the word visionary.

They are successful with women.

The first time I saw my future wife, she was in gym class running across the field. I was in algebra class looking out the window. As she ran across the field I said to myself- and this is at 16. She is good breeding stock. Back then I was going to be a dairy farmer so this was a realist train of thought. She was a year older than me, a grade ahead of me, a swimmer and captain of the ski team, not to mention she was and still is really good looking. Somehow I landed her, we were married at 18 and 19 we are still happily married 44 years later. So yeah :}

They use body language to appear larger than life.
I am already good sized 6 foot 200 pounds, I am loud, because I am partially deaf. I read lips and have studied body language for years. Anyone who is hard of hearing does the same thing. 80 percent of communication is none verbal. I have made a point of learning the small details of it, and make a practice of using them when I do meet people. I have done lots of public speaking, being animated, full of passion is trick to holding and audience. I have often said, if I did not go into the ministry at one point I would have been a stand up comic, I figure in church it is harder to walk out.

I thought this was going to be an easier task, I told you I would share with you the results. It took taking a few tests to answer some of the questions. one that I did not go into which was the wolf one was how willing were you when it came to conflict. I am not sure if it is as applicable to people as it is in wolfs, I can share I have been in numerous fights. I battled the unions for years, I will say that I am not shy about throwing the first punch, but not really holding against someone just because we fought. Fighting in the ring lets you be a little more detached when it comes to hitting people, I don't seem to hold it in the same level of concern that others do.

Madman. you can answer the same questions if you want and to what degree, if you don't no big deal. I did it with the idea it would be fun, anyone else can do the same.

 

That other test, which I say is ludicrous, I got 33% alpha male 66% omega female. I'd probably describe myself as a sigma male now though.

@RMBROWN Did I miss the part where you tell us that you've already forgotten more than we've even learned in life?

 

All this talk made me suddenly realize that the word alphabet is the actual beginning of the Greek alphabet. Alpha, Beta, Delta etc. An interesting side note—in ancient times the letters of the alphabet did double-duty as numbers. And the Hebrew letters also each had certain symbolic associations. They were mystical runes in a way, carriers of magic. I think there was a bit of that in the Greek, not as much as in the Hebrew, but of course by our time letters have become nothing more than abstract signifiers that link together to form words—no more, no less. And of course we have numerals to represent numbers.

 

I've never seen or heard of a test to see how alpha you are, but it seems silly. Every guy knows where he stands. You find out again and again whenever guys are jockeying for position. In some groups you might be the closest thing to an alpha, in some you're near the bottom of the pile. It can be really fun being the closest thing to an alpha until suddenly somebody above you on the hierarchy shows up and you lose all the attention you were getting.

 

Had to look up what a sigma is. Interesting:

Immediately makes me think of Jeff Goldblum in The Fly (at the beginning... ). He's socially awkward, doesn't seem to get out much, and yet strangely sexually confident. But then it's a Cronenberg film, everybody is kind of strange.

 

Not all alphas are like that though. Those are just the toxic ones. My guess is they're the ones who suffered various forms of trauma or abuse and developed personality disorders or complexes.

 

I'll agree to that—the general societal view of alphas is pretty dumb. Like so much these days, it's heavily distorted.

 

I'm torn whether or not to join this discussion. I've really just one point to make and that is the Alpha, if it has any relevance to our complicated society, is not a self-declaration but measured in the response of the group. The Alpha can puff out his chest all he likes but if the audience is going "oh fuck" then he's no-one leader. McGough (*edit for autocorrect) covers it well in this poem.

 

This is what I was about to say. There are definitely female alphas as well. The dominance hierarchy isn't only among males. There are women who are confident and poised and you just accept that immediately in their presence, and some are far more submissive, and the full spectrum in between. All the Mean Girl squabbling is betas fighting for status and omegas vying for their attention and favor.

Also, being narcissistic etc has nothing to do with a person's status level. That's just bad character traits, probably caused by bad upbringing or living in a bad neighborhood, and exists at any level.

 

Too be honest, the only reason I have done so many things is that I do not fear failure and consider myself in some way dumber than most. The first job I got, was because I was willing to work for free. The business I started was because I could not find a job. When I got into kick boxing, after two weeks the trainer said I was needed so much work that he recommended that I take aerobics with the women for a month and then come back. He was a brutal instructor, pounded the hell out of everyone, he was a pro fighter and was this was part of a class he put on. 1 year later I was the only one left in the class, the others got tired of getting beat up. He needed a training and sparing partner, so trained me for free. I work I lot harder than I have to, make way more money than I have to, because I fear at some point I might be broke again. I stay in shape only because my work is physically demanding and if I am in top shape I make more money. I got into writing because I worked while I was in high school and I graduated I was at the bottom of my class, my writing skills were so bad that in high school I had to be in special classes with all the other dummies. I make a good teacher, because I have to struggle with so much. I don't expect anything to ever be easy and I always have to figure on working twice as hard as anyone does The bottom line with me, if I can do, so can you. Thanks for the kind words, I really have lead a interesting life.

 

I bet I have failed more than most!

 

And that's a great way to learn.

 

Part of this is naive, in the business world leadership is what makes things happen. Good companies thrive because of it. Leaders set examples in both ethics acceptable work loads.

Don't kid yourself, the same woman that smiles and waves to me when I am in my Corvette does not notice me in my pickup truck. Any woman wants to be with a successful guy. I am old fashion enough to know that it my job to provide for my family and wife, my job to protect them. That is all really basic stuff.

My take on all of this is, that we are far more simple than what we would like to believe

 

I can agree with every statement you made. I had said this before I think. In all of the spots where I ended up being the leader, it was because I knew things needed to done. I was willing to do the work. The genesis of this thread was someone reaching out looking for a friend. I did what any leader did. I reached out so that this guy felt welcome. I explained what a friend was. In all honesty this guy does not have friends because he was un-willing or un-able to do the things I described, that you need to do to have friends. I made it simple, share your work with me and I will read it, if you want, you can read mine. I made the first step in being a friend and reached out and made it seem easy, that is what any leader does to build a group.

 

I'm 100% alpha male. First thing I do in the morning is go out and rip the other guys' limbs off to get that serotonin fix.

 

^^ Lobsters have a hierarchy (as every species does I think). They clack their claws at each other to establish dominance and get that all-important serotonin fix that causes you to walk more upright with chest out and command respect. It brings all the girls to the yard.

 

I am still a bit skeptical about these categorisations, but maybe that is just the beta/delta/charlie/omega/whatever in me not liking that I'm not top dog. Then again I have no problem understanding I am bottom dog in other categorisations, such as the societal hierarchy.

They are keenly aware of status.
I think about status sometimes, and mostly in toxic/jealous ways. I think that most wealthy people or people with status have no taste these days. They (the majority) buy flat furniture without any intricate decorations and live in box concrete houses created without love. But this may be more of a style preference. They also don't use their influence to improve the world as much as they could. I often think that if I had their status, I could be so much more creative and useful. But even in my current position, I am not doing all that much to improve the world, even though I have some means to do it, so maybe I am just full of shite.

They tend to be good looking.
I have a symmetrical face, but if I am good looking I do not know.

They are effective leaders in their peer groups
I have been naturally followed in various parts of my life, but I can not claim any great success at leading people. Often times I prefer to follow or not be involved at all.

They are confident.
I am fairly confident most of the time. I have many days when I doubt my capabilites completely.

They are extroverts
Sometimes I like to be the center of attention, but mostly I enjoy hiding in the shadows.

They are visionary.
I have many visions for how to improve our future. But my work towards those visions is very slow to none.

They are successful with women
I am very, very unsuccessful with women.

They use body language to appear larger than life.
Recently, my body language has become pretty stale.

All in all it is pretty random and depends a lot on my mood, the hour of the day, the blood moon, or something else.
I did take two funny online tests, but I disagree with the results on the one that said I was 60% alpha and 40% beta, I would consider the one where I got omega to be more accurate if I had to pick.

I also have not found any psychological journals/articles backing up that you can categories people in this manner, but I also don't hold much confidence in personality categorisations overall. I think people are too complicated and change a lot. Who is omgea today, may be alpha tomorrow and then back again. There are exceptions of course, as with almost everything. I also think our societal structure is too complex for these categories.