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Interpersonal and Affective Psychopathy Traits Can Enhance Human Fitness

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Abstract

Recently, attempts have been made to determine the evolutionary status of psychopathy. However, there is still a gap in empirical literature regarding the connection between psychopathy and fitness. In the present study, we explored the relations between the four-factor model of psychopathy and reproductive success as a fitness indicator in a sample of male convicts (N = 181). Direct relations were analyzed, together with the interaction effects between psychopathy and family risk factors (presence of criminality, substance abuse, and maltreatment in participants’ families). Basic regression models showed that the facet of interpersonal style is positively related to fitness, while other psychopathic characteristics had a negative connection with the criterion measure. Additionally, we found three significant interactions, which further clarified the relation between psychopathy and reproductive success. One of the interactions showed that affective traits can facilitate fertility in unfavorable environmental conditions. Results support a hypothesis of a possible adaptive function of psychopathy, broaden the concept of “successful psychopathy,” and confirm a view of psychopathy as a heterogeneous and complex construct, consisting of facets with distinct content.

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Notes

  1. However, the reader must have in mind that the data regarding the relation between psychopathy and psychological functioning is complex and ambiguous (see for example Neumann and Pardini 2014 and Vitacco et al. 2005). Besides the fact that these relations are quite likely complex in their nature, the heterogeneity in findings can be also attributed to the variability in measures for exploring both psychopathy and criteria variables and using diverse samples (convicts, patients, college, community samples) in the research.

  2. As an additional analysis of the relations between the examined variables, we provide the table of correlations between psychopathy, family risk factors and the raw number of children in the Appendix.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Gračanička 18, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Janko Međedović

  2. Institute of criminological and sociological research, Gračanička 18, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Boban Petrović

  3. School of Psychological and Clinical Sciences, Ellengowan Dr, Casuarina, Darwin, NT 0810, Australia

    Jelena Želeskov-Đorić

  4. Faculty of Philology, Studentski trg 3, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Maja Savić

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  1. Janko Međedović
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  2. Boban Petrović
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  3. Jelena Želeskov-Đorić
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  4. Maja Savić
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Correspondence to Janko Međedović.

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The work on this manuscript was financed by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technical Development as part of the project 47011—“Crime in Serbia: Phenomenology, risks and possibilities of social intervention.”

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The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this manuscript.

Appendix

Appendix

We provide the associations between the psychopathy facets, family risk factors, and raw number of children.

Table 3 Correlations between family risk factors, number of children, and psychopathy
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Međedović, J., Petrović, B., Želeskov-Đorić, J. et al. Interpersonal and Affective Psychopathy Traits Can Enhance Human Fitness. Evolutionary Psychological Science 3, 306–315 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0097-5

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