Beautiful, magnetic, terrifying. Photo: Harry Dempster/Getty Images An investigation into the joy and pain of fitting in: With this series, we’re exploring the pathologies, hierarchies, and quirks of female socialization from high school to the workplace and beyond.
This distinction — between status and likability — is especially important in understanding the alpha girl over her teenage-boy counterpart. Alpha boys tend to be aggressive in physical ways, starting fights or pushing each other around, while alpha girls are more likely to act in relationally aggressive ways, spreading rumors or using the silent treatment. But the behaviors can be interchangeable; sometimes the guys gossip, and the girls fight.
But perhaps more importantly, the reason alpha girls have such a hold over their peers may be at least partially explained by the neurological growth teenagers are experiencing. Teenage brains are highly attuned to social rewards, especially receiving positive feedback from their peers, and the popular kids — girls and guys — seem to be swimming in them. “So that makes us want to do whatever we can to be more like them,” Prinstein said.