Christopher MimsMar 1, 2023

Turns out the existence of an "alpha" wolf is a myth.

It was based on old/bad experiments, conducted when unrelated wolves were thrown together in captivity.

In actual wild wolves, packs are just families. There's no dominant alpha battling for the top spot -- and in the rare cases there is, it's an alpha *female* wolf.

Insert obvious implications for the use of this term in human societies.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/

Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth?

The idea that wolf packs are led by a merciless dictator, or alpha wolf, comes from old studies of captive wolves. In the wild, wolf packs are simply families

Scientific American
Show threadNuke the Luke
@mimsical it truly is the case that when you scratch the surface of any of these Big Ideas you get reductive and/or outdated scientific theories--of social organization sure, but also intelligence, gender, reproductive biology, evolution, the human immune system... It’s enough to make you wonder if there’s something happening in k-12 science education that gives a lot of students a false sense of mastery over some of the most complex concepts imaginable.
Mar 2, 2023 at 2:11pmMammoth
Show threadChristopher MimsMar 2, 2023
@LukeYoquinto hmmm. I wonder. Is that the source of it? Or something bigger and upstream of that?
Show threadNuke the LukeMar 2, 2023
@mimsical If I gave an easy, facile answer to this it would not be in keeping with the spirit of my comment!
Show threadNuke the LukeMar 2, 2023
@mimsical Here's a wrinkle though--when it comes to climate change, the middle-school-level science (every kid basically gets the greenhouse effect) goes out the window. All of a sudden it's triple-bankshot theories about conspiracies and corrupt models. So that seems to suggest something upstream of education is at work.