Predatory Personalities as Behavioral Mimics and Parasites

Abstract

Humans use a variety of deceptive tactics to extract resources from unsuspecting others. In this article, I suggest that much can be learned about patterns of human deception from predatory nonhuman animal behavior and parasitic infections. Nonhuman animals and parasitic infections utilize deceptive tactics to extract resources through two overarching strategies: (a) complex deception, slow resource extraction, heavy integration into a host or community, and low risk of detection, or (b) superficial deception, immediate resource extraction, little host or community specificity, and increased risk of detection. Predatory and parasitic human personalities may operate in analogous ways. Guided by analogies derived from nonhuman animal mimicry (such as color or behavioral deception) and micro-organismic infections, I have developed a theoretical framework to better understand deceptive and parasitic human behaviors as well as the characteristics defining them. Although applicable to areas of predatory and parasitic human behavior, two specific traits (psychopathy and Machiavellianism) are highlighted that have dire consequences for financial fraud, interpersonal harm, and organizational misbehavior.