New study suggests psychopathic men have a personality style that makes them attractive to women

[Judi Lynn]

By ERIC W. DOLAN October 19, 2019

Men with psychopathic traits tend to create favorable impressions on women, according to a new study published in Evolutionary Psychological Science. The findings indicate that psychopathy may include features that make men appear as more attractive romantic partners despite having a reduced interest in committed relationships.

“Psychopathy as a way of describing some people — mostly men — who have specific personality and behavioral tendencies has led to some enigmatic and quite frankly alarming findings from prisons, many of which had sexual and romantic consequences,” said study author Kristopher Brazil (@brazkris), a PhD candidate at Brock University.

“For instance, clinicians and psychologists working in prison settings have long known that inmates with more psychopathic features tenaciously try (i.e., are preoccupied with sex) and often succeed (i.e., must offer some attractive qualities, even if faked) at seducing prison staff, including clinical staff supposedly equipped with the tools to not be subverted by manipulation and charm that psychopathic men deploy.”

“Yet these individuals were some of the most violent and disruptive individuals in the institutions they were housed. The enigma of presenting such a positive image of themselves successfully despite their negative effect on others is what strongly influenced our ideas for this study,” Brazil told PsyPost.

More:
https://www.psypost.org/2019/10/new-study-suggests-psychopathic-men-have-a-personality-style-that-makes-them-attractive-to-women-54676

[ismnotwasm]

1. Classic example of why I can never take evo psych seriously

“This is where the evolutionary component came in, it allowed us to ask questions about the very existence of psychopathic traits—i.e., might they exist precisely because they enable men to have this kind of positive effect in initiating sexual and romantic relationships?” Brazil said.

Since I know a bit about the prison industry, and people who work in it and people who are in it, I will anecdotally submit that women attracted to a man in fucking prison, -no matter how charming- is a story more complicated from a psychological standpoint than a simplistic reading of a fucking evolutionary adaptation.

[Skittles]

2. yeah, for a WHILE

but I'm sure it wears off quickly

[defacto7]

11. Probably, but I'd imagine the psychopath really wouldn't care.

[rusty quoin]

3. I have no proof, but I suggest Republican women are more likely to be attracted to a psychopath.

And I mean Trump.

[dweller]

4. sigh ....

✌🏼

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Bill Hicks did a song about this...

[choie]

6. Not to this woman...

N/t

[rampartc]

7. do you think maybe this might be a problem with women?

I did a turn as a "bad boy." motorcycle, attitude, you know the bit. yes, plenty of girls, all the wrong girls.

[Ghost Dog]

9. Bingo.

A Psychopathic Woman, in my experience, avoids other women, preys on men.

[lastlib]

8. Well, that explains MY social life............

(or absence thereof...)

[NNadir]

10. This seems like a rather sweeping generalization.

Last edited Mon Oct 21, 2019, 06:34 AM - Edit history (1)

This is just a news item about a paper, and not the original paper, but unless there are some really illustrative statistics about frequency, it just sounds cute.

Were it the case that true psychopaths had an evolutionary advantage, one would expect a high frequency of finding them.

I've personally only known a few in a long life, although it happens one is my brother, to whom I no longer speak. A large number of people in my extended family also don't speak to him.

It's true that he married three times (to my knowledge) but uniformly, all of his wives came out of very troubled backgrounds, and were hardly "ordinary" women.


Of course, the so called "President of the United States" is a psychopath, and several others have risen to powerful offices, but most leaders, and 100% of the great ones, were not.


Of course, my story is anecdotal and not academic, but really, I don't see so many psychopaths as to be convinced there is an evolutionary advantage to being one.