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Multi-Year Meta-Analysis Debunks Fixed ‘Alpha Male’ Paradigm in Primates

Ecological conditions, reproductive tactics, group demographics, among other factors, shape primate power relations instead of a fixed sex-based hierarchy.

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Un grupo de babuinos chacma en plena sesión de acicalamiento.
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Overview

  • Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the five-year meta-analysis compiled aggression, threat and ritualized dominance data from 253 populations representing 121 primate species to assess sex-based power dynamics.
  • Researchers found males dominated females in just 17% of interactions and females dominated males in 13%, refuting a universal hierarchy.
  • Over half of recorded agonistic encounters involve cross-sex confrontations, indicating widespread inter-sex competition across species.
  • Female primates use reproductive strategies—such as concealed ovulation in bonobos and competition for caregiving males—to tip power towards themselves.
  • The findings challenge long-held gender hierarchy theories and suggest human sex-based relations may also be more flexible than traditionally assumed.