An article about why bad guys really do get the most girls confirms what we all already know.

NICE guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of antisocial personality traits known as the “dark triad” persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs.

The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People with these personalities risk being shunned by others and shut out of relationships, leaving them without a mate, hungry and vulnerable to predators.

But being just slightly evil could have an upside: a prolific sex life, says Peter Jonason at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. “We have some evidence that the three traits are really the same thing and may represent a successful evolutionary strategy.”

This study has a lot to do with the illusion of free will. It lends credibility to the observation that most womens’ strong preference for a man who is “spontaneous” is pre-wired neural programming. The difference between being spontaneous and being immature, self-centered, and capricious is really only a matter of perception (yes, a sweeping generalization, but made for the sake of brevity). Women (and men) who can not or will not see this ultimately self defeating preference in attraction for what it is are really no more than slaves of their own genetic programming.

Of course bad boy spontaneous is only one flavor of spontaneity. In reality, we all love variety in our lives. But the one thing above all that works time and time again in the early phases of meeting a woman is dark triad traits. Just ask David DeAngelo.