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to be confident because his dad taught him to hold his head high or because confidence is a genetic heirloom? Luckily, we avoid this logical hitch because Dexter was raised by an adoptive father, Harry. Any influence Harry has on Dexter is strictly the result of nurture. Dexter has a brother, Brian, who should share half of Dexter’s genes, but who did not grow up with Harry’s nurture. Some of their shared traits are likely the result of genetics, inherited from their biological parents. Where they differ may be the result of their different upbringings. As further comparison, Dexter’s foster sister Deb grew up in the same home as Dexter, but they are no more genetically related to each other than either would be to a random stranger off the street. Accordingly, Brian and Deb provide reference points for Dexter’s nature and his nurture.

All in the Family

Let’s start with Dexter’s nature. Antisocial behavior is heritable, and it seems likely that the Mosers, Dexter’s biological family, possessed some antisocial genes: His father spent time in prison and his mother was addicted to drugs. His biological brother Brian is a serial killer who spent time in psychiatric institutions with a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. After the age of three Dexter lost contact with his biological family, so the similarities they share with Dexter are presumably the result of nature rather than nurture. However, although Dexter was separated from the Mosers at a young age, he did spend crucial early years of his life with them, which likely affected his development.

Dexter and his brother are both psychopaths, an extreme form of antisocial behavior. Though they kill for different reasons, each of them seems to possess an irrepressible urge to commit violence. They engage in aberrant behaviors and do not display typical emotional responses. When Dexter found a dismembered Barbie doll in his refrigerator that was identical to a sawed-up body from a crime scene, he barely batted an eye. Most of us, alarmed and frightened by the Ice Truck Killer’s crimes, would not be able to sleep until he was behind bars and the key had been thrown deep into a volcano. Dexter, on the other hand, casually commented, “I think this is a friendly message, kind of like, ‘Hey, wanna play?’ And yes, I wanna play. I really, really do” (“Dexter,” 1-1).

How can anyone be composed, much less sanguine, when they are the inexplicable target of a serial killer’s game? The reason comes from Dexter’s, and most psychopaths’, nature. Two inherited personality traits (distinguishing features of a person’s character, often evident at a young age, that tend to be relatively stable over time regardless of environmental influences) are strongly associated with psychopathy: callous-unemotional and fearlessness. Callous-unemotional describes the degree to which a person possesses a callous disposition—one in which he or she does not respond to the distress of others and displays little emotion. Fearlessness is a lack of anxiety, especially in risky situations.

Callousness can be detected at an early age. When most children hear another child crying, they respond to try and soothe it. For instance, most children will stop biting another child when they see it causes the other child to cry out in pain. Callous children are insensitive to this clear sign of distress. Inheriting a callous-unemotional disposition is a significant risk factor in developing antisocial behavior and psychopathy. In most circumstances, antisocial behavior is equally the product of nature and nurture, but inheriting a callous disposition shifts the balance in favor of nature: antisocial behavior in callous children reflects a genetic influence of roughly 80 percent, according to Viding et al.’s research. Because Dexter and Brian are both callous-unemotional, they were both disposed to developing aggressive behavior regardless of their environment.

Part of Dexter’s modus operandi is to knock his victims unconscious and immobilize them so they awake naked and lying flat on their back. When the