This is such an obvious idea, but I haven't heard it mentioned. During thousands of years of human civilization there was one relentless self-inflicted evolutionary pressure--one coming from law enforcement. Law enforcement is the glue of every civilization. People who were social parasites--thieves, bandits, cheaters--were constantly being culled from the genetic pool. That must have left a genetic footprint in the longest-civilized societies.

This seems to be an area where the basic assumption of evolutionary psychology--that our psyches have been formed during, and essentially remained unchanged since, the hunter-gathering times--might have a weakness.

I realize that this is a controversial idea. There is no single trait, not to mention single "antisocial gene" that would be the target of the culling. Eliminating antisocial traits would probably lead to a more conformist society (one might argue that we are seeing signs of it in many a civilized country).

Notice also that there was never much pressure to select the smartest people, as those usually have fewer offspring, not to mention that they are often persecuted by the less intelligent (poor Socrates!).

Tags: evolution