Murderer Next Door : Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill

A leading psychologist profiles the killer in us all with this provocative, trailblazing work Though we may choose to believe that murderers are pathological misfits or hardened criminals, evolutionary psychologist and acclaimed author David Buss has some sobering news. Based on years of unprecedented studies conducted around the globe and filled with riveting accounts of specific murders, The Murderer Next Doorshows that the vast majority of murders are committed by ordinary people—and that the impulse to kill, far from being an aberration, has been hardwired by evolution into every human brain, where it awaits triggers that are stunningly familiar. Packed with revelatory information that overturns so much of what we think about ourselves, this riveting look into the underworld of the human mind will enthrall the legions of readers drawn to criminal profiling and true crime.

David M. Buss is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin whose books include The Evolution Desire and The Dangerous Passion. His pathbreaking research has received extensive media coverage, from features in Newsweek and the New York Times to appearances on Dateline and 20/20.