In humans, alpha male behaviour and characteristics are still noticeable althogh these can vary by social context. In a survey conducted between Hanover and New York women shown a series of head-only photographs of men picked those who were financially wealthy as "attractive" in better than 90% of cases. However, wealth is not the only alpha male trait that is still in vogue.

Height is often regarded as very desirable - tall men have been proven to be both more attractive to the opposite sex and also more fertile although whether these attributes are related is anyone's guess. Similarly, physically fit men do better than unfit men. Actual values of being "good-looking" are so subjective as to be practically useless for demographic testing but studies have shown that some level of facial symmetry is regarded as desirable in and by both sexes.

Intelligence, oddly, is not a winning male character-trait. Women consistently choose those men who are more financially wealthy or more closely match their physical requirements over those who have high levels of intelligence, according to studies conducted in Munich, Basle, Lyons, Tokyo, San Francisco, London, Johannesburg and New York.