Cheng, Tracy & Henrich 2021 — Dominance is necessary to explain human status hierarchies

What the study found

This paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that dominance — gaining influence through force, intimidation, or coercion — is a real and necessary component of how humans attain social status. On this account, status hierarchies cannot be fully explained by prestige alone, the freely conferred respect a person earns through valued skills or knowledge. Both routes to rank operate in human groups. ^[1]

Why it matters here

Manosphere discussion often reduces male social standing to a single "alpha" dominance ranking. This study is relevant because it treats dominance as one genuine pathway to status while insisting it sits alongside prestige rather than replacing it. That is a narrower and more conditional picture than a fixed hierarchy of dominant "alphas" over everyone else. See the check on whether alpha males exist for how this evidence is weighed against the popular framing.