How it Works: Alpha Male, Gamma Male.

As mentioned previously, a man who has the ability to stimulate a woman's alpha receptor will elicit both attraction a positive sexual response. The fact that such a man will frequently have a wide variety of suitors from a population of women with wildly disparate upbringings and social environments would seem to suggest that there is a common genetically predetermined neurobiological pathway for this phenomena. A woman's response to alpha behaviour, just like a woman's maternal response to the presence of little babies, is hard wired.

Also as mentioned previously, is the fact that social and rational factors also play an important role in mate selection. The Gamma male literally ticks all the boxes, being both socially, rationally and primitively agreeable to the woman.. An example of such a man would be a good looking and successful executive of a non-profit NGO. Here the cognitive state resembles this illustration.

In this situation, no stress is generated as all the cognitive processes are operating in unison re-enforcing each other. A woman cannot hope for better relational state than this as this is optimal state. Unfortunately in the real world, a woman's mate options are in many ways as limited as a man's: Optimal men are scarce.

As mentioned previously, alpha receptor activation is necessary for sexual attraction and many men who possess the ability to do so are flawed in other ways. Indeed the the typical cognitive pattern of the alpha male is as follows.
What's happening here is that whilst primitive and social processing are providing strong feelings of approval, rational processing is detecting serious flaws in the prospective mate and sending inhibitory signals to the other cognitive functions: Stress ensures potentially corrupting the mating process.

In the presence of primitive attraction( hard wired) and rational repulsion(soft wired) a woman will not mate with the male. On the other hand, in the present of strong attraction and rational repulsion, primitive processing will influence rational processing in such a way as bias the rational processing as to rationalise away objections to the mating process. The more sexually attracted she is to her otherwise unsuitable partner the more likely she is to engage in this form or rationalisation.

The aim of the mind is to recreate the state as exemplified in the Gamma Male illustration.

In low investment choices, i.e one night stands and short term flings, this cognitive inhibition may be of minimal importance as the woman can rationalise away the inhibition by recognising the relationship as strictly short term and of minimal importance. In longer relationships of potentially higher investment value, a woman will engage in all sorts of self-justification and illusory ideation in order to justify the relationship.

"He's damaged and I can fix him"
"His friends influence him too much"
"We're so good for each other"
"He'll change"
"He promises he won't do it again (fifth iteration of this idea)"
" A baby will strengthen our relationship"
"I don't deserve anyone better"

and so on.

This last one is particularly jarring and perplexing, especially to the laying in the wings beta male, who idolises and worships the affected woman(and who provides the shoulder for her to cry on) but who chafes at his spurned affections. The spurned beta wonders, Why does she reject me and stick with him especially when he treats her so badly? The reality is that she wants to stay with him for his alpha qualities and is trying to find an excuse to do so. It needs to be noted that the woman is not "lying" when she is doing this, rather their is a "hard wired" cognitive bias towards rationalising away the stress present in the relationship.

This last justification is particularly powerful deceiving rationalisation to outside observers as well; eliciting both sympathy towards the woman and paradoxically socially justifying her relationship with the man who obviously inappropriate. "She has low self esteem, don't be too hard on her" . The whole "I don't deserve anything better" rationalisation provides a powerful motive not to leave the relationship whilst at the same time gaining social sympathy as an "abused victim". It surprising how many women discover the self-esteem and leave the relationship when a greater alpha suitor presents himself.

Note, the same process can occur when there is low sexual attraction but high social justification for the relationship. When the social justification ceases, the woman "suddenly" finds out that she is "living a lie" and initiates divorce proceedings. The genetic meta imperative of the female mind is to eventually align thought with emotional state.

How it Works: Beta Male, Omega Male.

As mentioned in previous posts, the ability to elicit mating behaviour in a woman requires the stimulation of her cognitive alpha receptor. Niceness or agreeableness, whilst not off putting, are not characteristics which stimulate the alpha receptor. The neurophysiological processing which generates the sensation of "niceness" is seperate form the mating neuro-circuitry. This is easily verified in real life by the phenomena of the "friend zone". Women can and do have agreeable relationships with males such as brothers, fathers and workers without feeling the slightest sexual desire. Partner "agreeableness" may be a pre-requisite(though not necessarily so) to sexual attraction but it on its own is not enough to stimulate the alpha response.

Figuratively we can picture the mental processes as such.

Note, in this cognitive model, the beta male may appeal on both socially and rationally but he fails to elicit any response in the primitive area. The woman finds the man agreeable(even strongly so)and may in fact place high value on the friendship but does not feel sexual attraction to the male. It's also the cognitive mechanism at play when a woman speaks those dreaded words "lets just be friends". Hence a beta male can be defined as a male who fails to stimulate the alpha receptor but retains enough positive attributes so that a woman wants to form a non sexual relationship with him.

Now a woman may still be able to engage in erotic behaviour whilst in this zone, but the behaviour is not instinctive or desired. Such a mechanism operates when a woman is "doing her duty" or having sex with someone out of guilt or pity, however what are driving her behavior are social expectations or rational judgment, not instinct.

(It needs to be remembered that just as mothers can experience difficulty in bonding with their child when exhausted, ill or under other external stresses, the sensitivity to the alpha receptor can be diminished in similar states.)

Contrast the Beta cognitive model with the Omega. The Omega male actually stimulates feelings of repulsion in the woman,

Here, not only is the primitive processing not stimulated but the primitive area sends inhibitory signals to the rational and social areas of the mind to try and break off contact. Unlike the beta male where there is no desire to break off the non-sexual relationship, the woman deliberately tries to avoid the Omega man. This in some way is a small mercy for the Omega male, for he is left in no doubt about the woman's desire not to have a relationship with him. This small mercy is not extended to the beta male. Here the woman is still quite happy to keep his company and her friendly engagement and proximity with the beta male may be misinterpreted by him as being the very beginnings of a potential sexual interest. Inevitable frustration and bitterness ensures.