Breaking down social groups

not really a common pattern in my experience. often social structure among friends is pretty flexible, and its pretty hard to squash real people into categories like this.
you just end up defining yourself down into misery 8D

take a group of people talking

watch them.

One will talk furiously, he is the alpha

The person he directs his speech to is #2

The 3rd person is harder to distinguish, given enough time with observation he will be the 3rd most talkative person there. I really suck @ explaining all of this that ive been building up from thinking about this for a long time now.

I'm considering them as separate possibilities anyway.

The first one I've never really seen, but I won't deny it's possible.

The second one quite probably happens, but I'd stay the fuck away from those kinds of people.

The third is the one I've seen the most, in some variation.

In my experience, the most accurate generalization I can find is that M1 is absolutely the alpha in any group, and M2's main qualification is that he's close to M1.

btw im not done yet @ all but there is no sense in posting all of it on here and getting tl;dr's

if anyone is interested when im finished i will repost

On August 12 2008 04:34 Heero wrote: I'm considering them as separate possibilities anyway. The first one I've never really seen, but I won't deny it's possible. The second one quite probably happens, but I'd stay the fuck away from those kinds of people. The third is the one I've seen the most, in some variation. In my experience, the most accurate generalization I can find is that M1 is absolutely the alpha in any group, and M2's main qualification is that he's close to M1.

Just to use easy examples that have come quickly to my mind, movies. Baseketball and Van Wilder are awesome examples. They show the 3man social group theory @ it's flying colors.

and lol @ stay away from those people im assuming everyone takes part in this including yourself and me.

seems like a depressing view of the world youve got

in my experience people can coexist in states of mutual respect and rise above this sort of animal categorisation

How is it depressing? Realize you have no free will and realize that most ideas of beautiful human skill and specialness and not real.
We all are animals; we aren't special in any way except that we have evolved to believe we are above god and can defy what makes us who we are.

I'm just realistic.

edit - im agnostic so my term of god is taken in that context plz

mutual respect doesnt imply that none of the individuals is the alpha male, it would be naive to ignore that.

I am a believe in human equity but im also a realist and as such i actually realize my friend group is a bit alike what CrownRoyal explained.

I used to be M2 until M1 left to go study in Italy, he was M1 because we have alike alpha male characteristics however he was more involved with the people we hanged out to so he had the "contacts", he left and now i am M1 despise the fact im still the least social of my other 2 friends now (which are hard to categorize any as alpha).


There is a flaw in your theory imo from my personal experience, now that im the least social M1 (hanging with a very mild M2 and a M3) the mild M2 and the M3 interact between each other much more because they need to cuz they are the social ones so the M3 has actually much "power" than in a regular M1 M2 group cuz he can swing the M2 decition equalling forces with me.

good point baal

i hadn't thought about that much but i think you're onto something.

in my main group im a m3 and our alpha got a gf and the m2 and I became really close and I almost took over in a sense.

but when the alpha is around things turn back to normal...



I'm confused now because that changes a lot of what I had in mind.

Maybe personality has as much to do with your status as m1-m3 in a group where m1 and m3 can interchange depending on the group and a m2 will more usually be an m2.

Also to further prove my point on tri-alphaoriented-malegroups

When you're getting in a vehicle the greatest % of the time the alpha will be the driver, the m2 will ride shotgun and the m3 will ride where ever he can.

I'm in a group of four M2's
which would explain why nothing ever gets done

Alright baal i just took a shower and I think I can add this to my theory.

In times when M1 is absent M2 will no longer disrespect M3. M2 can be categorized in two variations. Someone who always follows or someone that wants alpha glory. In the first case M3 will very often become the "alpha" of the two and actually act as the leader. Should the M2 have higher aspirations in his triangle, he has dibs on being the acting alpha in the absence of the M1. It seems a very unrare occurrence for the m3 to take alpha over the m2.

It seems as though M2's are the only ambiguous personality types. People who are generally M2's and are more of the "mancrush" type will always be M2's. Presumably because anyone who can be an M1 would only upgrade to a higher alpha group quickly in a m3 fashion and/or because m3's are only in the 3 spot because they are leeching trying to gain alpha.

in short m2's are generally ambitionless and happy with how things are. M1 and M3 have higher goals.

Should the M2 be absent from the group the M1 will no longer disrespect the M3 and the M3 will move up to the spot of M2 immediately.

Baseketball is a movie dude.

You do make a crucial point in that M2 usually don't become M1.

btw im not saying you only have 2 friends in your life.

I'm saying that when you hang out with a group of 3+ people who are guys these rules take precedent and if you guys all know each other than the rules are imbued in your mind.

The reason it seems like im saying that you only have 2 friends is that im referring mainly to your main group because they are the ones you associate with the most

On August 12 2008 05:08 CrownRoyal wrote: Also to further prove my point on tri-alphaoriented-malegroups When you're getting in a vehicle the greatest % of the time the alpha will be the driver, the m2 will ride shotgun and the m3 will ride where ever he can.

lol this is hillariously accurate, our M3 always always rides in the backseat, almost like its implied.

I'm the only one of my friends with a car so I guess I'm M1 -_-

Also very interesting read!

there are a lot of holes in what ive posted already and things that contradict what ive written.

I've nearly changed my mind about some core things too. Oh well, this isn't a book or something and its just me throwing around ideas to get a solid idea of what I really know and you guys punching holes in it til i can make it all fit and make sense.