Alpha males are more stressed out than their lowly counterparts
Researchers found that while they get the pick of the girls, the money and the power they pay a heavy price for their dominance.
Maintaining a lofty position in the social hierarchy causes your stress levels to rocket, it was discovered. Researchers believe that its so tough at the top because of the effort required to stay there and not the weight of responsibility.
The study, by Princeton University and published in the journal Science, looked at baboons but the team believes that the insights could also reflect on human societies.
The heightened stress levels remained even when the animals appeared to be calm. Professor Laurence Gesquiere said: “Baboons are not only genetically closely related to humans, but like humans they live in highly complex societies.
“An important insight from our study is that the top position in some animal – and possibly human – societies has unique costs and benefits associated with it, ones that may persist both when social orders experience some major perturbations as well as when they are stable.”