Ottesen Vibeke
Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Hordaland, Norway.
Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 24;14:1019020. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1019020. eCollection 2023.
Current evolutionary psychological (EP) perspectives on filicide perpetration propose that it is an extreme behavioral manifestation of psychological mechanisms that evolved due to their function toward enabling ancestrally adaptive discriminative parental investment. Predictions concerning the characteristics traits of filicide derived from this hypothesis have been empirically supported cross-culturally. Still, it remains a theoretical and empirical question whether EP perspectives on filicide are applicable in societies where the general population is alleviated from ancestrally salient cues to reproductive conflict between individuals and children in their care and the opportunities for lethal caretaker behaviors are highly constricted. Compiling a national sample of filicide cases in modern-day Norway, the present study catered for testing whether EP perspectives on filicide apply in such a society. As predicted, the majority of incidents (79.5%) were associated with perpetrator psychopathology (psychotic episode or filicide-suicide). This further catered for testing the EP hypothesis that filicides associated with perpetrator psychopathology will be characterized by traits that contradict an ancestrally adaptive logic for discriminant parental investment. A full series of predictions derived from this hypothesis was supported as filicides with this association included no step-parental perpetrators and, when compared against filicides that were not associated with perpetrator psychopathology, had older victims and perpetrators and more often multiple victims. The findings confirm the potential applicability of EP perspectives on filicide in progressive and highly developed welfare states, thus lending support to their universal validity.
当前进化心理学对杀子行为的观点认为，它是心理机制的一种极端行为表现，这些心理机制因在促进祖先适应性的差别亲代投资方面的功能而进化。从这一假设得出的关于杀子行为特征的预测在跨文化研究中得到了实证支持。然而，进化心理学对杀子行为的观点在这样的社会中是否适用仍是一个理论和实证问题，在这类社会中，普通人群摆脱了与照顾对象中个体与子女间生殖冲突相关的祖先显著线索，且致命的照顾者行为机会受到高度限制。本研究通过收集现代挪威全国范围内的杀子案件样本，来检验进化心理学对杀子行为的观点在这样一个社会中是否适用。正如预测的那样，大多数事件（79.5%）与犯罪者的精神病理学（精神病发作或杀子后自杀）有关。这进一步有助于检验进化心理学的假设，即与犯罪者精神病理学相关的杀子行为将具有与差别亲代投资的祖先适应性逻辑相矛盾的特征。该假设得出的一系列预测均得到了支持，因为与这种关联相关的杀子行为不包括继父母犯罪者，并且与那些与犯罪者精神病理学无关的杀子行为相比，受害者和犯罪者年龄更大，且受害者往往不止一人。研究结果证实了进化心理学对杀子行为的观点在进步且高度发达的福利国家具有潜在适用性，从而支持了其普遍有效性。
