Audiobook10 hours
The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill
Written by David M. Buss
Narrated by Michael Prichard
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
As acclaimed psychological researcher and author David Buss writes, "People are mesmerized by murder. It commands our attention like no other human phenomenon, and those touched by its ugly tendrils never forget." Though we may like to believe that murderers are pathological misfits and hardened criminals, the vast majority of murders are committed by people who, until the day they kill, would seem to be perfectly normal.
David Buss's pioneering work has made major national news in the past, and this provocative book is sure to generate a storm of attention. The Murderer Next Door is a riveting look into the dark underworld of the human psyche- an astonishing exploration of when and why we kill and what might push any one of us over the edge. A leader in the innovative field of evolutionary psychology, Buss conducted an unprecedented set of studies investigating the underlying motives and circumstances of murders, from the bizarre outlier cases of serial killers to those of the friendly next-door neighbor who one day kills his wife.
Reporting on findings that are often startling and counterintuitive-the younger woman involved in a love triangle is at a high risk of being killed-he puts forth a bold new general theory of homicide, arguing that the human psyche has evolved specialized adaptations whose function is to kill. Taking readers through the surprising twists and turns of the evolutionary logic of murder, he explains exactly when each of us is most at risk, both of being murdered and of becoming a murderer. His findings about the high-risk situations alone will be news making.
Featuring gripping storytelling about specific murder cases-including a never used FBI file of more than 400,000 murders and a highly detailed study of 400 murders conducted by Buss in collaboration with a forensic psychiatrist, and a pioneering investigation of homicidal fantasies in which Buss found that 91 percent of men and 84 percent of women have had at least one such vivid fantasy-The Murderer Next Door will be necessary reading for those who have been fascinated by books on profiling, lovers of true crime and murder mysteries, as well as readers intrigued by the inner workings of the human mind.
Based on a wealth of groundbreaking research, a leading psychologist's fascinating investigation of why we are all "wired to kill"
David Buss's pioneering work has made major national news in the past, and this provocative book is sure to generate a storm of attention. The Murderer Next Door is a riveting look into the dark underworld of the human psyche- an astonishing exploration of when and why we kill and what might push any one of us over the edge. A leader in the innovative field of evolutionary psychology, Buss conducted an unprecedented set of studies investigating the underlying motives and circumstances of murders, from the bizarre outlier cases of serial killers to those of the friendly next-door neighbor who one day kills his wife.
Reporting on findings that are often startling and counterintuitive-the younger woman involved in a love triangle is at a high risk of being killed-he puts forth a bold new general theory of homicide, arguing that the human psyche has evolved specialized adaptations whose function is to kill. Taking readers through the surprising twists and turns of the evolutionary logic of murder, he explains exactly when each of us is most at risk, both of being murdered and of becoming a murderer. His findings about the high-risk situations alone will be news making.
Featuring gripping storytelling about specific murder cases-including a never used FBI file of more than 400,000 murders and a highly detailed study of 400 murders conducted by Buss in collaboration with a forensic psychiatrist, and a pioneering investigation of homicidal fantasies in which Buss found that 91 percent of men and 84 percent of women have had at least one such vivid fantasy-The Murderer Next Door will be necessary reading for those who have been fascinated by books on profiling, lovers of true crime and murder mysteries, as well as readers intrigued by the inner workings of the human mind.
Based on a wealth of groundbreaking research, a leading psychologist's fascinating investigation of why we are all "wired to kill"
Author
David M. Buss
David M. Buss, one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and is the author The Evolution of Desire and The Dangerous Passion.
Related to The Murderer Next Door
Related audiobooks
Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for My Father...and Finding the Zodiac Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tangled Web: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cheatingland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations---From Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making a Psychopath: My Journey into Seven Dangerous Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man, Interrupted: Why Young Men are Struggling & What We Can Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Men on My Couch: True Stories of Sex, Love, and Psychotherapy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Social Psychology of Sexual Interactions: 19 Things You Didn’t Know About Other People’s Sex Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus the Rest of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Peace and Violence in Human Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snakes in Suits, Revised Edition: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Murder For You
Unanswered Cries: A True Story of Friends, Neighbors, and Murder in a Small Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Little Secret: The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laci: Inside the Laci Peterson Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The I-5 Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghosts That Haunt Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rip in Heaven Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab--The Body Farm--Where the Dead Do Tell Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stranger Beside Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Murderer Next Door
Rating: 4.352941176470588 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder was advantageous in the ancestral environment, so we evolved a disposition to kill rivals.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The author provides an interesting perspective on why people kill. Basically he states that murder is part of human evolution. He backs up his theory with case studies and other research. While I enjoyed his unique perspective on murderers, I would have liked for him to provide even more scientific research and proof to support his theory. Also, the author restated the same points over and over through out the book. I often found it hard to concentrate on the book since it was so repetitious.
1 person found this helpful