Bad guys really do get the most girls – sex – 18 June 2008 – New Scientist
Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of antisocial personality traits known as the “dark triad” persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs.
The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People with these personalities risk being shunned by others and shut out of relationships, leaving them without a mate, hungry and vulnerable to predators.
Bad guys really do get the most girls – sex – 18 June 2008 – New Scientist
But there’s just one problem — many women find “bad guys” irresistible.
So it’s all women’s fault, really. If they didn’t breed with these scoundrels the world would be rid of narcissistic, thrill-seeking Machiavellis. 
3 Responses to “Bad guys really do get the most girls – sex – 18 June 2008 – New Scientist”
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Published: Jun 21 2008
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I read an explanation of this by an online dating advice guru that made sense. Women are attracted to men who are self confident. narcissistic jerks tend to have plenty of self confidence.
That could be the case. I’ve also heard that women (on the whole — these are wild generalizations) prefer to marry “nice guys” (good and stable, help you to bring up the kids) while they prefer to have affairs with “bad boys” (more exciting). And this is supposed to be the reason why people are more likely to say that a newborn baby looks like it’s father — they’re offering reassurance. In my experience most newborns look either like ET or Winston Churchill, although these are observations I tend to keep to myself.
According to Marie-louise von Franz the central individuation myth for women is beauty and the beast. So you are both right. Women do seem to be attracted to beasts, but in order to marry them, they must be transformed into a prince. Sadly this is meant to describe how women relate to their animus, not to men. With men it often backfires. Evidence of this can be seen in the ever popular Mills and Boon books. The 1000′s of these books all have the same plot which is essentially the beauty and the beast story.