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Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits

Although psychopathy is widely conceptualised as a mental disorder, some researchers question the maladaptive nature of psychopathy, and argue that it might be advantageous from an evolutionary point of view. According to this view, psychopathy can be seen as an evolutionary adaptative strategy that...

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Autores principales: Ene, Ioana, Wong, Keri Ka-Yee, Salali, Gul Deniz
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588932
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.36
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author Ene, Ioana
Wong, Keri Ka-Yee
Salali, Gul Deniz
author_facet Ene, Ioana
Wong, Keri Ka-Yee
Salali, Gul Deniz
author_sort Ene, Ioana
collection PubMed
description Although psychopathy is widely conceptualised as a mental disorder, some researchers question the maladaptive nature of psychopathy, and argue that it might be advantageous from an evolutionary point of view. According to this view, psychopathy can be seen as an evolutionary adaptative strategy that relies on deception and manipulation to gain short-term reproductive benefits. Psychopathy is also identified as a fast life strategy in response to early life stress and an adaptation to harsh environments. This paper investigates the evidence that psychopathic traits are adaptive, while also addressing the limitations of current evolutionary models of psychopathy based on frequency-dependent selection and life history theory. We review recent studies on the fitness correlates of psychopathy and find that psychopathic traits present potential adaptive trade-offs between fertility and mortality, and offspring quantity and quality. On a proximate level, individual differences in stress reactivity and environmental risk factors in early development predispose to psychopathy through gene–environment interactions. We propose that environmental, developmental, social and cultural factors can mediate the relationship between psychopathic traits and fitness and therefore should be considered to make accurate predictions on the adaptive potential of psychopathy. We end by outlining gaps in the literature and making recommendations for future evolutionary research on psychopathy.
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spelling pubmed-104261112023-08-16 Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits Ene, Ioana Wong, Keri Ka-Yee Salali, Gul Deniz Evol Hum Sci Review Although psychopathy is widely conceptualised as a mental disorder, some researchers question the maladaptive nature of psychopathy, and argue that it might be advantageous from an evolutionary point of view. According to this view, psychopathy can be seen as an evolutionary adaptative strategy that relies on deception and manipulation to gain short-term reproductive benefits. Psychopathy is also identified as a fast life strategy in response to early life stress and an adaptation to harsh environments. This paper investigates the evidence that psychopathic traits are adaptive, while also addressing the limitations of current evolutionary models of psychopathy based on frequency-dependent selection and life history theory. We review recent studies on the fitness correlates of psychopathy and find that psychopathic traits present potential adaptive trade-offs between fertility and mortality, and offspring quantity and quality. On a proximate level, individual differences in stress reactivity and environmental risk factors in early development predispose to psychopathy through gene–environment interactions. We propose that environmental, developmental, social and cultural factors can mediate the relationship between psychopathic traits and fitness and therefore should be considered to make accurate predictions on the adaptive potential of psychopathy. We end by outlining gaps in the literature and making recommendations for future evolutionary research on psychopathy. Cambridge University Press 2022-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10426111/ /pubmed/37588932 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.36 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Ene, Ioana
Wong, Keri Ka-Yee
Salali, Gul Deniz
Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title_full Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title_fullStr Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title_full_unstemmed Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title_short Is it good to be bad? An evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
title_sort is it good to be bad? an evolutionary analysis of the adaptive potential of psychopathic traits
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588932
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.36
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