Antisociality and Prosociality

Antisociality and Prosociality is a theory developed by Immanuelle which is meant as an alternative to the notion of the Dark triad.

It is based on a biological theory and the notion of two separate factors derived from the hare psychopathy scale

Factor 1 Antisociality: Temperamental in origin based on fast life history strategy. Genetic and not strongly associated with violence, associated with bedtimes.

Factor 2 Antisociality: Associated with Fluctuating Asymmettry, poor health, and a reaction of a fast life history strategy in response to this.


 * i.e. this is a meta-reaction to an observed bodily form.

General notes

Autism and sociosexuality article

Dopamine receptor polymorphism

Fast life history strategy vs Criminal phenotype
Criminal phenotype is always fast life history, but fast life history can be peaceful.

Having a sufficiently dysgenic phenotype with high fluctuating asymmetry and minor physical anomalies leads to the development of a particularly venomous fast strategy which is criminality.

Developmental stability
Developmental stability is achieved when an organism is able to withstand genetic and environmental stress, to display the bilaterally symmetrical traits determined by its developmentally programmed phenotype. To measure an individual's developmental stability, the FA measurements of 10 traits are added together, including ear width, elbows, ankles, wrists, feet, length of ears and fingers. This is achieved by: (L - R)trait 1 + (L - R)trait 2 + ......(L - R)trait 10. This provides a good overall measure of body FA, as every individual has some features that are not perfectly symmetrical.

Common environmental pressures leading to lower developmental stability include exposure to toxins, poison and infectious diseases, low food quality and malnutrition. Genetic pressures include spontaneous new mutations, and "bad genes" (genes that once had adaptive functions, but are being removed through evolutionary selection). A large fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and a low developmental stability suggests that an organism is unable to develop according to the ideal state of bilateral symmetry. The energy required for bilateral symmetry development is extremely high, making fully perfect bilateral symmetry functionally nonexistent in natural organic creatures. Energy is invested into survival in spite of the genetic and environmental pressures, before making bilaterally symmetrical traits. Research has also revealed links between FA and depression, genetic or environmental stress and measures of mate quality for sexual selection.

One of the most consistent findings reported is that low FA is positively associated with measures of extraversion, suggesting that more symmetrical people tend to be more extraverted than less symmetrical individuals, particularly when specifying to symmetry within the face.

A correlation has also been reported between FA and human social dominance. However, research is proving less consistent with other personality factors, with some finding some weak correlations between low FA and conscientiousness and openness to experience, and others finding no significant differences between those with high or low FA.

Health-risk behaviours
It has been suggested that individuals with lower levels of FA may engage in more biologically costly behaviours such as recreational drug use and risky body modifications such as piercings and tattoos. These ideas have been proposed in the context of Zahavi's handicap principle, which argues that highly costly behaviours or traits serve as signals of an organism's genetic quality. The relationship between FA and behaviours with high health risks has received mixed support. Individuals with body piercings and tattoos (which increase risk of blood-borne infections) have been shown to have lower levels of FA, but individuals with lower FA do not engage in any more recreational drug use than those with higher FA levels.

Mental health in humans
Higher levels of FA have been linked to higher levels of some mental health difficulties. For instance, it has been shown that, among university students, higher FA is associated with higher levels of schizotypy. Depression scores have been found to be higher in men, but not women, with higher levels of FA. One study by Shackelford and Larsen found that men and women with higher facial asymmetry reported more physiological complaints than those with lower facial asymmetry, and that both men and women with higher asymmetry experienced higher levels of psychological distress overall. For example, men with higher facial asymmetry experienced higher levels of depression compared to men with lower facial asymmetry. Fluctuating asymmetry has also been studied in relation to psychopathy. One study looking at offenders and non-offenders found that, although offenders had higher levels of FA overall, psychopathic offenders had lower levels of FA compared to offenders who did not meet the criteria for psychopathy. Additionally, offenders with the highest levels of psychopathy were found to have similar levels of FA to non-offenders.

Antisocial behaviours
Some studies suggest a link between FA and aggression, but the evidence is mixed. In humans, criminal offenders show greater FA than nonoffenders. However, other studies report that human males with higher FA show less physical aggression and less anger. Females show no association between FA and physical aggression, but some research has suggested that older female adolescents with higher facial FA are less hostile. The type of aggression being studied may account for the mixed evidence that is seen here. For example, one study found that females with higher FA demonstrated higher levels of reactive aggression in response to high levels of provocation, whereas high FA males showed more reactive aggression under low levels of provocation.

Research is also mixed in other animals. In Japanese scorpionflies (Panorpa nipponensis and Panorpa ochraceopennis), FA differences between members of the same sex competing for food determines the outcome of interspecific contests and aggression better than body size or ownership of food. Furthermore, cannibalistic laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus) demonstrate more asymmetry than normal hens. However, this link between FA and aggression in hens is questionable, as victimised hens also showed greater asymmetry. Furthermore, when prenatally injecting hen eggs with excess serotonin (5-HT), the hens later exhibited more FA at 18 weeks of age, but displayed less aggressive behaviours. It is suggested that the stress introduced during early embryonic stages via certain factors (such as excess serotonin) may create developmental instability, causing phenotypic and behavioural variations (such as increased or decreased aggression).

Minor Physical Anomalies
Moffitt writes, "Minor physical anomalies, which are thought to be observable markers for hidden anomalies in neural development, have been found at elevated rates among violent offenders and subjects with antisocial personality traits." Neural development in the fetus may also be affected by maternal drug abuse, poor prenatal nutrition, or prenatal/postnatal exposure to toxic agents. Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are features such as low-seated ears, furrowed tongue, and adherent ear lobes. Evidence supporting the link between minor physical anomalies and antisocial behavior shows that the link only exists when adverse environmental factors are present.

Sociosexuality
Individuals who are sociosexually unrestricted tend to score higher on openness to experience, and be more extraverted, less agreeable, lower on honesty-humility, more erotophilic, more impulsive, more likely to take risks, more likely to have an avoidant attachment style, less likely to have a secure attachment style, and score higher on the Dark Triad traits (i.e. narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy). Higher masculinity and eveningness in women is related to unrestricted sociosexuality. High self-monitoring is also associated with unrestricted sociosexuality, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation (i.e., religion as an end) tend to be sociosexually restricted, while those with an extrinsic religious orientation (i.e., religion as a means to achieve non-religious goals) tend to be unrestricted. Unrestricted women report engaging in more social interactions with men on a daily basis than restricted women. However, unrestricted individuals rate their interactions with their best friends (non-romantic) as lower in quality (i.e., as less pleasant and satisfying) than restricted individuals.

Gender differences and sexual orientation
Men tend to have higher SOI scores and be more unrestricted than women across a variety of cultures. However, there is more variability in scores within each gender than between men and women, indicating that although the average man is less restricted than the average woman, individuals may vary in sociosexuality regardless of gender.

Bisexual women are significantly less restricted in their sociosexual attitudes than both lesbian and heterosexual women. Bisexual women are also the most unrestricted in sociosexual behavior, followed by lesbians and then, heterosexual women. Gay and bisexual men are similar to heterosexual men in sociosexual attitudes, in that they express relatively unrestricted attitudes relative to women. However, gay men are the most unrestricted in sociosexual behavior, followed by bisexual men and then, heterosexual men. This may be because gay men have more potential partners who prefer short-term, casual sexual encounters.

Unrestricted sociosexuality is associated with early life experiences with sex, more frequent sexual activity and a greater number of lifetime sex partners. Unrestricted men tend to have greater rape myth acceptance, past sexual aggression and more conservative attitudes about women than restricted men. Unrestricted women tend to have more sexual fantasies involving having power or control over another person and lower levels of sexual conservatism than restricted women.

Hormones
Individuals who are partnered typically have lower testosterone levels than individuals who are single. However, this was found to apply solely to individuals who have a restricted sociosexuality. Partnered, unrestricted men and women's testosterone levels are more similar to the levels of single men and women.

Implications
Possessing an unrestricted sociosexuality seems to increase the likelihood of having a son by 12-19% in American samples. This may be explained by the generalized Trivers-Willard hypothesis, which states that parents who possess any heritable trait that increases males' reproductive success above females' will have more sons, and will have more daughters if they possess traits that increase females' reproductive success above males'. Since unrestricted sociosexuality increases the reproductive fitness of sons more than daughters (as males have the potential to have more offspring through casual sex), unrestricted parents have a higher-than-expected offspring sex ratio (more sons).

Autism
Autism is not a disability, it is a slower more rigorous development of social skills. Likely has no long term impacts at 30+ that aren't things like CPTSD or similar

Autism and sociosexuality article

Misc notes

Autism and gender identrity