So the economic incentives for cheating increased as ancient human populations grew. At a certain point, the arms race turned hot. Co-operative humans evolved social emotions to detect and punish cheats. Cheats evolved manipulation and emotional mimicry to hack the emotional languages. Social emotions became more complex, as cheating mimicry got better. As co-operative humans developed better social memories, cheats became better liars.
And so on and on. Our brains are chock full of psychopathic talents and psychopath detectors. It’s not that the more intelligent humans had more babies. The arms race did a pincer movement on small brains. We are either superb altruists, or we are superb cheats. Both take a lot of brain power: the more, the better. There is no safe middle ground.
Someone Stole My Lamp. I’m Delighted.
Let me explore some of those psychopath detectors. One is our sense of humor. Humor is a human universal, visible in children from a young age. Babies giggle with joy when they play with their parents. We instinctively trust people who can make us laugh. We distrust those who don’t like our jokes, or seem to lack a sense of humor.
We use humor more in stressful situations. We value original humor and reward the "telling" more than the joke itself. In our horror films, the monsters don’t laugh except in a creepy way that scares young children. Monsters have no sense of humor.
A joke is a construction, a story with a specific and consistent shape. Every joke, even puns, depends on a mystery. We don’t tell the mystery. That would be "explaining the joke." Rather, we tell the joke and then we wait for the other person to "get it." When they get it, they laugh, and we laugh, and the event is complete. Or, depending on the joke, we may expect a groan.
It’s not enough to just laugh, either. Both parties must laugh at the right moment, not too soon, not too late. The laugh must last long enough. It must not be too loud, nor too soft. A good joke makes both the teller and the listener happy. A failed joke disturbs and irritates us. Humor is so connected to our emotions.
Such a precise thing, the humor protocol. This is not random or accidental.
What we have evolved with humor is an empathy detector. A joke is a card with two sides. We show one side, and keep the other hidden. If the listener has empathy for the character in the story, they get to see the hidden side. This triggers the laugh response. If the listener has no empathy, they are baffled.
A psychopath cannot laugh "right." He does not laugh, or he laughs too much, or too long. We are more wary of people who laugh too much, than of those who don’t laugh at all. What is he hiding, we wonder?
How Does it Make You Feel?
Another of those "uniquely human" talents is art. Why did our ancestors enjoy painting on rocks and cave walls? The traditional explanations are they made art for art’s sake, out of boredom, while high on drugs, or as part of hunting ceremonies.
Yet like the 40,000 year old ivory Venus, art serves no functional purpose except to stir emotions in the viewer. The talent to create is so widespread that it plays on every street corner for pennies. Yet we respect it and, it seems, our species has done so for a long time. Above all, we expect art to make us "feel" something. And we ask this of others: "how does it make you feel?" And we scan their faces as they answer.
Psychopaths have many curious traits, which I will come to in the book. One is their lack of interest in creative acts. They do not draw, paint, sculpt, or carve. They do not take photographs, except of themselves and their possessions. They do not cook for pleasure, invent recipes, nor make their own bread as a hobby. They do not create music, though they can be an excellent performers of others' work.
This lack of creative drive is a curious thing, when you first see it. It matches their generally empty sense of humor. Their hobbies are travel, shopping, eating out, meeting new people. This is consumption, not creation.
Art is a precious thing. It is a universal human language. As with comedy, we reward originality more than technical brilliance. As with comedy, we enjoy art more in company than alone. And as with comedians, we praise and respect artists, though the talent has no survival value. Finally, we measure artists by their track record: one success isn’t enough. One success can be fake, stolen, or accidental. Whereas for scientists or athletes, one victory can last a lifetime.
I’m certain creativity is another secret language of empathy. It asks the world, "friend or foe? Look at this and tell me you feel something!" and the viewer responds, or fails the test. It is much like telling a joke. Like a great joke, a great creative work must speak from and to the emotions. It must tell half a story that only a social brain can complete and "get."
A young child learns to draw at school, and takes their works back for their parents. These gifts are not useful in any concrete sense. Yet they are important and special in the moment. The child watches their parent’s reaction. When they see joy at the squished faces and strange colors, the child also feels joy. They share the moment, confirming each others' social humanity. The child thinks, “See Mommy, isn’t this great!” The subtext is, “See, Mommy, I’m normal. Please don’t reject me!”
We create for ourselves and others. We create to make other people feel something. Usually, it’s happiness, though sometimes it’s loss, sadness, or other emotions. A creative act is a message of empathy. And we measure the quality of our art as we do our humor: by its originality, and thus its authenticity.
This is why imitative art is "fake." It is why engineering isn’t art, and why fast food feels "cheap." It is why we don’t explain jokes, and why an artist cannot explain the "point" of his or her work. It is a test, and if you don’t know the answer, that itself is significant. It’s why a pile of bricks in the Tate Gallery is worth a million pounds. That’s the joke.
Conclusions
We’ve started to unlock the mystery of psychopaths by treating them as predators, rather than broken people. The predator model does more than explain psychopaths. It also explains the evolution of the human mind, as the result of an ancient arms race between cheaters and altruists. For 3 million years, altruists have gotten better at working together, and cheats have gotten better at faking it. In the next chapter I’ll explain how psychopaths hunt.
The Hunt
The Party Maker
He wanders into his favorite place, a large bar and restaurant. The spot is popular with noisy young people looking for good times. It’s early on this Saturday summer evening. He chats with the bouncer, Mike. The large man enjoys the distraction, and tells him little fragments of his life. His ex-girlfriend and the unexpected baby. His boss. He high-fives the bouncer and cuts the conversation. "Catch you later, Mike, I’m gonna get myself a beer". He crosses over to the bar.
Outside on the terrace he finds a large round table and sits with his cold bottle. People are trickling in. He watches them. A good mix, typical of this part of Texas. Migrants come here from all over the US, and beyond. Men check out women. The women pretend to ignore the men. Some couples. Some loners, backs to the wall, body language shouting, "I wish I was taller."