It's an alpha male thing: what dominant chimpanzees and Donald Trump have in common

[CousinIT]

. . .In the wild and in captivity, chimpanzee colonies organize themselves into tightly structured hierarchies. Power is vested in the biggest, strongest, and most outgoing males in the group, with the alpha male on top. The alpha leader dominates all others through tactics of threat, intimidation, bluffing, and outright aggression – and importantly, by forming short-term, pragmatic coalitions (let us call them “deals”) with other high-status males.

Chimpanzee politics can be intricate, but they always obey the rules of social dominance. Because chimps and humans evolved from a common ancestor going back 5-7m years, we humans know deep in our brains what social dominance is all about. Our expectation that social status can be seized through physical power and threat – that the strongest, biggest and boldest may indeed lord it over the rest of us – is very old, awesomely intuitive, and deeply ingrained.

Social psychologists today distinguish between the social dominance form of human leadership, on the one hand, and leadership through prestige on the other. Both are grounded in human evolution, but the prestige form is younger, tracing back a mere million years or so to the time when our hominid ancestors began to form culture. In the prestige paradigm, leaders attain their authority in the group by demonstrating culturally valued expertise – as, for example, in cooking, defending the tribe, healing, peacemaking, or (in the modern world) science, education, technology, the arts, business, law, medicine, communication, and so on.

For human beings today, dominance and prestige compete with each other as the two primal expressions of leadership.

When it comes to US presidents, we expect to see a bit of both.

For Trump, however, it is dominance all the way through.

An especially effective dominance mechanism for the alpha chimp is the charging display. The top male essentially goes berserk and starts screaming, hooting, and gesticulating wildly as he charges toward other males nearby. Pandemonium ensues as rival males cower in fear and females grab their little ones and run for cover.

Once the chaos ends, there is a period of peace and order, wherein rival males pay homage to the alpha, visiting him, grooming him, expressing various forms of submission.

Trump’s incendiary tweets are the human equivalent of a charging display. . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/14/donald-trump-alpha-male-chimpanzee-behavior?CMP=share_btn_tw

[Thomas Hurt]

1. I always thought he was more like a purse dog, yapping at a passing cat.

[annabanana]

2. Evolution clearly went haywire somewhere in his genes.. those things he seems

so proud of.

[sarisataka]

3. A 3 inch penis?

[Initech]

6. The smaller the dick, the bigger the jackass!

[Warpy]

4. Dumpster Fire better watch his step

From Wikipedia, "Community female acceptance is necessary for alpha male status; females must ensure that their group visits places that supply them with enough food. A group of dominant females will sometimes oust an alpha male which is not to their preference and back another male, in whom they see potential for leading the group as a successful alpha male."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee

This is one reason men who fancy themselves "alpha males" generally avoid the company of any women but those far younger than themselves. This exposes their inherent weakness as males and as human beings.

[Orsino]

5. It's bluffing.

Ape chest-beating is a display of the symbols of toughness used to discourage challenges.

Trump doesn't know what he's doing, doesn't understand his businesses, and doesn't get along well with others. Every time he opens his stupid face-hole, he is bluffing, counting on the illusion of his wealth to forestall questioning. This served him well for decades and let him pretend to be a smart businessman on TV, but it left him unprepared for the sort of scrutiny a president faces.

This world probably does seem unfair to him. No one ever told him he'd have to work for what he wanted.

[TheFrenchRazor]

7. unfortunately, human beings are quite clearly ruled by ancient DNA, and a chimp style social

social order is the result. it will take much work to overcome it, but i think it is possible.

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. I thought it might have something to do with poo-flinging. nt

[Major Nikon]

9. Would it surprise you if Trump shit in his hand and threw it?