Check out Top 10 Theories About How Biology Creates A Criminal

6 Psychopathy May Be Evolutionary

Photo credit: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr
Psychopaths have different biology than normal humans, with some researchers arguing that psychopathy is evolutionary rather than a mental disorder. In tests, people with more psychopathic tendencies were less likely to harm their families. In an evolutionary sense, this meant that psychopaths acted to protect their own gene pool at the expense of others.The theory has many critics, but there are other factors suggesting that psychopathy is evolutionary. One anthropological hypothesis looked at the Kung Bushmen and the Mundurucu villagers. The Kung live in the harsh desert environment of South Africa where working together is essential for the tribe’s collective survival. There, reproductive success is dependent on how well one works with the tribe. Any psychopathic traits would be a hindrance to the survival of one’s genes.The Mundurucu live in the Amazon basin, where women do most of the farming while men compete for social status. It’s a culture where meat can be traded for sex, and reproductive success depends on where a man sits in the social hierarchy. This requires fearlessness, good verbal skills, and a lack of empathy—all traits of a psychopath. In that environment, psychopathy would be an advantage by evolutionary standards. Still, ideas like these do not completely discount the emergence of psychopathy as a mental disorder or a deliberate, behavioral choice. The prevailing theory is still that it is not an adaptive trait.