If two subordinates are fighting, the alpha male will erect all of his hair and charge toward the fighters and they will fearfully disengage to escape him. What is interesting about these apes, is that when third parties intervene in conflicts, they do so by exerting raw power.
I know who you are but a broader audience needs to know.ĬB: I’m a cultural anthropologist interested in political behavior, who was trained in ethology by Jane Goodall and spent six year going to Africa to study conflict resolution among wild chimpanzees. Trump has innovated similarly, and his orthodoxly-political opponents have had no good answer.ĭSW: A little more about you, please. In the New Scientist article I drew a parallel between Trump and a Gombe chimpanzee named Mike, who suddenly became alpha male because he incorporated new elements of intimidation into his alpha-male displays. Trump obviously got on well with these people. He has worked with the theater of conflict not only in his television series The Apprentice, but also in his foray into the raucous world of professional wrestling shows. Political competition is a field in which Trump is an intuitive genius. What is the serious point that you are making with your comparison?ĬB: Every lasting chimpanzee alpha male is an expert in intuitive politics, for with these apes leadership competition is constant and not limited to contests every four years. A lot of people would like to call Trump an ape, but you are speaking with some authority and New Scientist wouldn’t publish something that was merely name-calling. Here’s an email conversation that I had with Chris to expand upon his analysis of Donald Trump as acting like an alpha male chimpanzee.ĭSW: In your essay in New Scientist, you compare Donald Trump to an alpha male chimpanzee. The author of the commentary is Christopher Boehm, whose books Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior and Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism and Shame go a long way toward defining the difference between (highly) cooperative human society and (largely) uncooperative primate societies. David Sloan Wilson interview with Christopher Boehmĭonald Trump has been compared to an ape in an unlikely place- the pages of New Scientist magazine.
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