"women rated male characters designed to capture high Dark Triad facets of personality (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) or a control personality. Physicality was held constant. Women rated the high Dark Triad character as significantly more attractive"

Most bad boys are posers, but women like a good poser. If you have the right aesthetic you can let imagination do the heavy lifting.

More ranting

Despite Tinder, we live in a pretty strong "long term mating" strategy geared environment. Very stable vs. evolutionary history.

Short term mating strats are mostly for lawless environments where women have little chance of having a long term mate and children with dark triad traits (like their father) are more likely to live. Since we don't live in such an environment, it's a good time for nicecels. Given our law systems now, it is one of the worst time for Dark Triad personalities.

Regardless, my point is that both dangerous and harmless men are niche populations. Having both aspects to your personality as a man (e.g., being able to get ahead in your career by being pushy, being able to fight off a violent attacker, but being kind and loving to your partner) is women's preferred option. This is evidenced by most men having elements of both, as this was selected for by women.

Sapolsky has more to say on how humans are a unique mixture of tournament and pair-bonded species. This idea is supported by how humans have some notable sexual dimorphism, but not as much as true tournament species who do not mate long term. We have a lot of similarities to species who mate for life too.

This also supports the idea that women value both aspects of a man.

They don't even realise they are doing it

I am a woman, and these aren't my original ideas, they're theories feom the field you're citing this paper from.

Drawing conclusions from a paper like this when you don't know the basics of human short term vs. long term mating strategies is really r-slurred lol

Speaking personally, I do think you are, to a degree, right. Men who have some capacity for violence or manipulation in required situations are more attractive to most women than men who are not. But go too far, or show yourself to not be able to control that enough to be a good mate, and it's a huge turn off for any functional woman.