Bad Criminal

There are many types of sexual disorders from dendrophilia (literally translating to “love of trees”),  objectophilia (emotional desire towards specific inanimate objects, oculolinctus (licking the eyeballs), vampirism (attraction to or involving blood), and even necrophilia (attraction to corpses). You can literally look up lists of all the strange things that people are sexually attracted to.  Bonnie and Clyde, the epic duo, even have a syndrome or sexual paraphilia named after them. Hybrisophilia, defined by sexologist Professor John Money is described as “the sexual arousal and pleasure from having a sexual partner who is known to have ‘committed an outrage or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery’” (Griffths). People with this disorder often focus their attention on someone who has been imprisoned and in most cases they urge the object of their affection to commit crimes. 

Bonnie and Clyde

Have you ever wondered how those creepy serial killers who are imprisoned get a fan club and have all these women throwing themselves at them (even though these women are well aware of the fact that these men kill)? In some cases of hybrisophilia, the person with this disorder will contact someone already in prison who they do not know but may have only seen in the media. 

“High profile murders and serial killers that are known to have received sexual fan mail include Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramierez, and Ted Bundy” (Griffths).

Unlike most other paraphilias, hybrisophilia is more common in women than it is in men but it also varies in “disposition and degree” (Griffths). The women with passive hybrisophilia are the women who fed the prison fan mail services, they have a desire to be with someone who has committed crime but not actual commit crime themselves. They put themselves in “positions to be seduced, manipulated and lied to by the people they fall for” (Love Arthistory).  Their counterparts, the aggressive hybrisophilia, the ones who help their mates commit crimes (the actual Bonnie and Clyde). The only thing that is common between both passive and agressive hybrisophiliacs are that they both tend to be in abusive or unhealthy relationships. 

It’s not really known as to why this sexual paraphilia even exists or how it came about. An evolutionary reasoning could be that these men’s children would have a higher survival rate than others. They could also be “narcissist enablers who are attracted by power” (Love Arthistory). Though these women can be seen as victims of their own circumstances it must be understood that these women are not victims at all but instead want to subject themselves to this criminal behavior with violent tendencies. 

Symmetry's For Squares

It's obvious that Hollywood, a billion dollar industry, is doing something right. Yet, what would a good plot be without someone beautiful to look at. Celebrities are so appealing to us because they are, let's face it, ascetically pleasing. Not only has it been proven that we base our judgement (trustworthiness and personality) of others based on the symmetry of their faces but we base how to find a mate on it as well. The body/facial symmetry of another (specifically the opposite sex) is directly correlated to their "physical fitness and condition" (Ragsdale).  Both men and women look for someone who will produce good offspring and facial symmetry comes in handy when looking for a mate. A person with better symmetry produces better offspring.

Who Doesn't Love a Bad Boy?

Even though we know they are bad for us, what draws women in to bad boys? Every woman out there wants a man who they know will be there for them, to provide, comfort, care for future/current family. Yet, there are still bad boys out there because lets face it, they are irresistible. Gregory Louis Carter and his team at the University of Durham conducted a study to try and figure out why these bad boys are just so utterly appealing.

Research has shown that more men have what is considered the "Dark Triad" (Mehta). This Dark Triad are three personality traits; narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellism. Narcissism is a greater trait in men than it is in women and the hallmarks include dominance, a sense of entitlement, and a grandiose self view. It is also believed that narcisissm helps bad boys for short term dating because it involves in "a willingness and ability to compete with one's own sex, and to repel mates shortly after intercourse" (Mehta). Psychopathy is callousness, a lack of empathy, and antisocial, erratic behavior. Just like Ted Bundy, psychopaths exhibit superficial charm, deceit, and a "sexually-exploitative interpersonal stance" (Mehta). Lastly is Machiavellianism. These people are manipulative, coercive, and opportunistic, which are an advantage in short term mating. The men who exhibit machiavellian behavior also appear to be more promiscuous.

The team presented a 128 female undergraduate students with descriptions of two types of men, Dark Triads and controls. The only difference in the descriptions of the two were that the control group dropped the dark personality traits. The findings you ask? Well Carter and his team found that women found the Dark Triad personality traits more appealing than that of the control. So why is this? One theory could be that sexual selection could be at work here. The confidence, stubbornness and risk taking tendencies are all those that represent a quality mate for reproduction. These traits however relate to short term mating, not anything women actually want longterm.  Another reason could be sexual conflict at play. "Women may be responding to DT men's ability to 'sell themselves'; a useful tactic in a co-evolutionary 'arms race' in which men convince women to pursue the former's preferred sexual strategy" (Mehta). These men are effective charmers and manipulators which helps to further short-term mating.  Yet, it is important to emphasize that the women tested are also young women, college women, who are still interested in short-term relationships.