It’s no secret that we can find fictional villains fascinating. It’s been argued that that’s because we are evolutionarily drawn to understanding bad guys, as well, of course, to seeing the good guys prevail. But new research by Rebecca Krause and Derek Rucker at Northwestern University (USA) published in Psychological Science, suggests that this is not the full story.

In real life, we do tend to like people who are similar to us in positive ways — who are also conscientious, say, or agreeable. But research has found that we recoil from others who are similar to us in positive ways but possess antisocial traits, too — they’re intelligent but deeply manipulative, for instance. This is thought to be because it’s uncomfortable for us to see any similarities between ourselves and “bad” people.