title: Sexual selection, Machiavellian intelligence, and the origins of psychosis.
abstract: According to Darwin's theory of sexual selection some features that differentiate the two sexes evolve by a process of "male competition" and "female choice". The sex difference in age of onset of psychotic illness in man may relate to a sexual dimorphism in cerebral organisation (the male brain being more lateralised or asymmetrical than the female brain), a difference consistent with a role for sexual selection in the evolution of the human brain. Differing criteria (reflected in a cross-culturally stable difference in mean age at marriage) in males and females for selecting personality characteristics in a mate may generate diversity in the balance of growth between the hemispheres, and this could maintain the high and relatively constant rates of psychosis in human populations.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Crow
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008257:Machiavellianism; D008297:Male; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics