Ed Luo

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Armchair Musings

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Enter the world of male personality pseudoscience. A long time ago we made up a few Greek letters to describe male archetypes after analyzing wolves in the wild. To be clear, human societies do not operate like wolf packs, but it’s still fun to place yourself in a personality bucket.

Eventually the concept of Alpha and Beta males stuck around, embedded in our pop culture, and we like to pretend these ideologies justify our social hierarchies.

Today let us muse about these common male personality types, ranging from Alpha to Omega. What’s important to note is that these are traits and attitudes that are consistently demonstrated. You may change personalities over time or fall between two archetypes. No single personality type is “bad” as everyone is unique; too many Alpha males in a room would result in chaos. Regardless of what type you are, remember to master and continuously improve yourself to maximize these traits in your relationships.

Starting off with the one that we all know:

Natural leader with a positive mindset. Dominant and demanding in social interactions. Huge charisma and machismo. High levels of self esteem and ego.

Extroverted, popular, “bad boy”, and a man’s man. High risk takers and competitive in all areas of life — relationships, career, investments. Confident with a bit of aggression.

Alphas thrive on conflicts and challenges. Thus in a 1:1, head-to-head competition with another type of male, the Alpha will usually win (except perhaps against Sigma men).

Due to Hollywood portrayals, many men want to be the Alpha guy, but not everyone has what it takes. Taken to the extreme, Alpha men can be very toxic.