The day is OK and the sun can be fun But I live to see those rays slip away

I was up late last night reading this paper from the Journal of Human Biodiversity Eysenck Newsletter, sent by a friend. It earned the 2014 Ignobel Prize in Psychology:

[Thx Galina]

I had always regarded noctural habits as a perfectly rational response to the painful hostility of those times of day when the shouty white fireball is above the horizon. But if the authors are to be believed, nocturnality is a symptom of a slight flaw in one's character... or rather, a sign of the adaptive combination of psychopathic tendencies, narcissistic self-regard, and Machiavellian manipulation.

With this flexibility, some humans may find it adaptive to occupy this under exploited niche for their adaptive goals. We contend the Dark Triad traits may represent a specialized adaptation for night-time living.

They carry on as if the night people are a whole nother species, using the perceptual superiority of their light-gathering tarsier eyes and their greater evening alertness to prey upon the day people, as the latter grow vulnerable in the dying of the light and the waning of concentration.

One manner by which these traits might be adaptive is by predisposing individuals to exploit the night-time niche. With fewer people awake, the lessened light, and the diminished cognitive processing of those with morning disposition, enacting a ‘cheater strategy’ (Jonason & Webster, 2012; Mealey, 1995) might be easier at night

Several parts of the argument are missing. It would be nice to have evidence that 'chronotypy' is actually hereditable; without this assumption, the evolution of a predatory nocturnal subspecies is not gonna happen. It would also be nice to have reliable self-report questionnaires for psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism, rather than half-century-old relics like the MACH-IV.

Attitudes towards medically-assisted
suicide might have meant something
in 1970 but are now merely quaint

Also, you say "Machiavellian manipulation of others", I say "helping them to see their true selves and destinies".

Perhaps "Number of Self-Citations" could be used as an operational index of Narcissism. There were too many for mention of the prior work of Peter Watts of FizerPharm.

My main concern, anyway, is that "self-regard" is difficult (or so I hear) when you cannot see your reflection in a mirror.

It is aslo disappointing that the third author, Dr Minna Lyons, did not change her surname to Harker for purposes of publication.