http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/dalai-lama-angry-13400561

That said, I’d like to offer some thoughts. The video really hints at a major point: genes are not destiny.

The reason for this is probably at least twofold: 1) there are probably hundreds (even thousands?) of genes that might participate in the production of a given trait, and 2) external conditions can turn genes on and off.

Let’s take violence. Yes, a variant of the MAO-A gene is associated with heightened aggression in men. That said,
so is testosterone. Which one is really driving violent behavior? Neither, in the sense that neither is sufficient to create a violent man. But they both apparently contribute. What’s more, if you want to look at testosterone all by itself, you’ll find that there are many genes that influence serum testosterone, and many ways that external factors like diet and lifestyle effect testosterone directly (not to mention the entire steroidogenesis cascade).

It gets even more complicated: there are psyho-social influences on gene expression. That is, even if you have some gene that codes for an “alpha” behavior, whether or not that gene gets turned on is also influenced by social and mental factors. This suggests that “alpha” really is contextual, but not just in how social circumstances affect our social standing (vis-à-vis other men) but also biologically; social and mental factors have an effect on our very biology.

So, to re-frame this somewhat: there are certainly genetic factors that help produce alpha behaviors. But, these are multiple and they themselves can be influenced by external factors like diet, thoughts, and social context.

The question we might ask ourselves is: how can we hack our biochemistry through diet, mindset, and lifestyle to maximize what “alpha inheritance” we may have received.

“Alpha is a mindset, not a demographic.”

In spite of your stated behaviorist leanings, you’re starting to sound like a cognitivist here.

(I’d go further though and say that “Alpha is a PsychoNeuroEndocrinological state.”

I think this is also what A.B Dada is getting at….

Where we have failed in recent years is
a) Lack of strong male mentors (fathers or otherwise), who are imperative to help teach young men how to control their emotion and channel it in the right direction
b) Demonizing aggressive sports like boxing, martial arts and even other games like dogdeball, rugby etc by feminists. Being a practitioner of martial arts myself I can vouch that I have found them immensely helpful in learning to handle emotion and staying unfazed while facing a difficult situation.