It is for these evolutionary reasons that women can’t help but feel primal attraction for the typical bad boy or “jerk”.
Jerks exude confidence and—back to sub-communication—all of their actions sub-communicate they are the prize.
When he treats her like shit, the sub-communication is that he has options. If she leaves, there’s 10 other girls who’re after him. And that only intensifies her attraction for him.
When he doesn’t give her what she wants, the sub-communication is that he’s mentally strong enough to ignore her shit and not supplicate to her silly demands. He feels no need to try impress her by bowing to her every whim. He’s probably also capable of slaying those juicy big buffalo, dealing with potentially dangerous tribe members, and protecting her from those sabertooth tigers. And all that only intensifies her attraction for him.
When he flat out ignores her for days on end, not answering calls or texts and virtually disappearing off the face of the earth, the sub-communication is that she might not be good enough for him or he might be getting bored of her. And that only intensifies her attraction for him and makes her try harder to please him.
And so on.
There’s a reason women’s erotica is written about bad boy bikies, tattooed assassins and domineering billionaires, not “nice guys”.
Heck, a 2013 study, The Dark Triad personality: Attractiveness to women , found, “Women rated the high DT [Dark Triad—narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy] character as significantly more attractive.” (Carter et al., 2013)
