I would imagine that in order to foster a legitimately productive discussion on this topic one would need to establish what precisely is meant by "alpha". QUOTE]
(New here--apologies for the formatting problem I messed something up. I've edited it to make my comments more apparent by underlining them. If someone wants to msg me to let me know how I screwed up my attempt to quote two messages, I'd liek to knwo so I don't do it again. Thanks.)
Thanks for writing something that I was about to write.
But there's much more lacking here for a productive discussion.
My question is: How much of a productive discussion can be had here? The discussion might have been over before it even started given the strengths and weaknesses of this medium of dialogue and debate.
One major, virtually ignored thing standing in the way of a productive discussion is that, for the bigger picture, whatever "ranking or ordering" one wants to invoke for Males (you can see my comments below on Drifterwood's failed attempt to clarify that issue if you want to get into that issue more deeply), it is being done in a fairly unidimensional way here.
There are multiple dimensions that go into any ordering/ranking/ for "existing stereotypes" used to calculate some sort of "rank" for a given Male (alpha vs. beta, for one). E.g., facial attractiveness, body-type issues--height, weight, build, money, work position/level of authority/influence, other social positions and authority influence, confidence, attitude, wit, intelligence, accomplishments, reputations of various sorts...have different kinds and degrees of effect on cheating.
So, maybe obese and ugly but still "overall Alpha males" are cheated on more than handsome, fit "overall Alpha males" --or not--maybe finances or any factor X play a bigger causal role than other factors....
And of course, it all varies for a given woman as many women here have made clear.
On Drifterwood's commentary:
QUOTE=Drifterwood;3953963]
This thread is frankly a bit of a mess. When people talk of Alpha Male, they mean this stereotype of "successful, authoratative, charismatic" etc etc. It's bullshit as I have said a few times IMO. I think some of you are confusing the concept with your own realities of your number one male and therefore getting a bit pissy about the charge that you would cheat.
However, there is data that suggests that non paternity rates are considerably lower the higher you go up the social pecking order. I think this is worthy of debate. Maybe a new thread - "Why are non paternity rates lower, the higher up the social pecking order you go?"