idea

The theory of the alpha wolf is that individuals in wolf packs compete to the top of the hierarchy, and is dominated by a male alpha wolf who's the most aggressive and violent, other submissive to that wolf.

That theory has since then been refuted^[1] by the very same scientists who came up with it. Wolf packs are families, usually led by older wolves (the parents), and raising their pups, older pups helping with raising their siblings, giving the hierarchy. The leader of the pack is not determined by violence and aggression, but by simple parentality and age. These being older and more experienced is a good predictor of success for the pack.

Yet the "alpha wolf" remains a myth firmly believed by the manosphere to push for men to be virile and dominant.

references

[1]: Rivka Galchen / The myth of the alpha wolf ref

Quoting David Mech who wrote the book coming up with the theory:

“It wasn’t until the early seventies, after we’d put those radios on wolves and we could follow each individual that we realized, Oh, a pack is a family.” It began to make more sense, in general, to think of the heads of the packs as the breeders—the parents.

Kira Cassidy, specializing in wolf sociology:

“If they have one or two older individuals, they are more likely to win—which was not what we’d expected to find.”

Schenkel, who made a study that led to these observations:

The Schenkel study that gave rise to the terminology began in 1934, looking at wolves living at the Basel Zoological Garden. The conditions, as described in the study, were rough: “Up to ten wolves were kept together in a small area with a floor space of approximately 10 metres by 20 meters.” Not only were the wolves in captivity but they had been brought in from different zoos, and were unrelated to one another. This might be the equivalent of studying the human family by observing the culture of prisoners in a holding cell