%0 Journal Article %J Lancet %D 1993 %T Sexual selection, Machiavellian intelligence, and the origins of psychosis. %A Crow, T J %K Brain %K Female %K Fertility %K Humans %K Intelligence %K Machiavellianism %K Male %K Psychotic Disorders %K Selection, Genetic %K Sex Characteristics %X

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.

%B Lancet %V 342 %P 594-8 %8 1993 Sep 4 %G eng %N 8871 %1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8102725?dopt=Abstract