The PBS series ‘Be Smart’ has released a YouTube video titled ‘The Scientific Lie That Damaged Generations of Men.’ The video features Joe Rogan’s image in the thumbnail with the word “fake” prominently displayed across his face.
The video takes direct aim at popular “alpha male” concepts promoted in certain online spaces.
Host Joe Hanson opens by addressing what he calls “a really powerful and sometimes dangerous idea that’s taken root in pop culture: the idea of the ‘alpha male.'” The video shows clips from what appears to be manosphere content, with voices discussing concepts like “it is evolutional…biological” and “the only alpha they respond to is me.”
Hanson frames his criticism as both professional and personal: “I, as a biologist, and as a man, want to address it.” He argues that the alpha male concept has been “hugely misinterpreted and disconnected from what the science actually says.”
The video traces the origins of the alpha male concept, explaining how Swiss scientist Rudolph Schenkel studied captive wolves in the 1940s and coined the term “alpha animals” in a 1947 paper. This concept was later popularized through David Mech’s 1970 bestselling book “The Wolf.”
However, the video reveals a critical flaw: Schenkel’s observations were based on unrelated wolves forced together in captivity, not natural wolf families. Mech himself appears in the video to correct the record, explaining that wolf packs are actually just families where the “alpha male and female are just the parents.”
Mech states in the video: “I keep having to answer questions about things that I published in 1970, which are not right, you know.” He reveals he successfully had his own book taken out of print because the science had been corrected.
The video then turns to modern culture, showing clips from what appears to be manosphere content with phrases like “the strength is even a way to try and not be weak” and “cause men are the backbone of the slave force” and “we’ve evolved for the hierarchy.”
Primatologist Aaron Sandel responds to these concepts: “If you look at YouTube or whatever, there isn’t a lot of good information out there about dominance or alpha males. Almost none of that material is grounded in our understanding based in animal behavior.”
Hanson directly addresses online alpha male culture: “If you watch like YouTube videos or the way kids are talking about in high school or college…that’s not how it’s meant to be used in animal behavior. It’s not a personality trait.”
By featuring Rogan’s image with “fake” overlaid, the video positions popular podcasters promoting alpha male concepts as spreading scientifically incorrect information that harms men by preventing genuine connection and belonging.
