Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend

"Barbara Oakley's "Evil Genes" weaves science, history and personal experience into a study of the "successfully sinister" (also known as Machiavellians), who suffer from cognitive defects that make them similar to (if not the same as) those with borderline personality disorders.

The catalyst for Oakley's book is the death of her sister, Carolyn, an attractive woman who often exhibited a cold disregard for others. When Carolyn learned that her mother's boy friend was about to take her mother to Europe for the "trip of a lifetime," Carolyn "came to visit" and ended up as the replacement girl friend who actually made the trip. Her mother died soon after that disappointment. When Carolyn returned to her family after a long estrangement, apparently sincere in her desire for forgiveness and reconciliation, she left to run an errand and the family didn't see her again for five years. It later turned out that she had met a man while shopping and decided to go home with him--her family was out of sight and thus out of mind. Carolyn's diary entry on the occasion of her father's death mingles the family's tragedy with the mundane: "[Penny] cleaned up the dried parsley I accidentally spilled. Barb called--Dad died. My request for help with periodontal care seemed self-serving; but apparently this will be handled through a trust fund."

Clearly, Carolyn was different from the rest of us in her ingrained sense of her own importance, as well as the relative unimportance of those around her. But why? Was it her upbringing? Was it a genetic predisposition toward a borderline personality disorder? Was it the polio she suffered as a child? Was it some combination of these factors? In this highly readable book, Oakley struggles to answer these questions through a study of history, science and personal reflection.

Science reveals that the "successfully sinister" don't just act strangely. Scanning techniques reveal that their brains process information and emotions in a completely different way from ordinary people. Although many people whose brains operate in this way are so dysfunctional that they are complete failures, others combine their flawed personalities with other valuable skills to become extremely successful. It is the "successfully sinister," like Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic, and Chairman Mao who are the most dangerous. And they are made all the more dangerous by their sense of rectitude--although Mao killed millions and inflicted untold suffering on millions more, Oakley suggests that he died believing that he was a deeply moral and essentially good man. The fact that evil people don't truly appreciate that they are in fact evil is, of course, cold comfort to the rest of us.

Where do these Machiavellians come from? According to Oakley, people who are sociopaths or who suffer from borderline personality disorder are rare in hunter-gatherer societies--accidents happen to those who are too selfish. The "successfully sinister" probably thrive in settled society, where they are much harder to spot than if they are part of a small group of people who depend on each other for survival. And the structure of complex societies may further encourage the appearance of Machiavellians--for example, polygynous societies reward ruthless men who are able to control access to harems, and the women who rise to the top in the competition in the seraglio are likely to be pretty self-absorbed as well. These people tend to combine to produce large numbers of offspring. The result may be that there are more Machiavellians in the settled world than there are among hunter-gatherer societies--and that our warning systems are poorly evolved to identify and cope with them.

An equally interesting question, and one that Oakley does not spend too much time discussing, is why the rest of us put up with these monsters. Hitler stayed in power because most of the people around him were willing to help him do that--or at least were too afraid to stop him. The same goes for Chairman Mao, Stalin, Castro, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and a long list of others, all of whom seem to be loved by some and rightfully hated by the rest. What is it that makes us susceptible to Machiavellians? Their charm? A weakness in our own defenses? A felt need in certain times of crisis? All of the above?

These are interesting questions, I think, but they'll need to wait for another book for answers (or attempts at answers). In the meantime, Barbara Oakley's "Evil Genes" makes for fascinating reading.



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~ Written on 2007-12-09