'Chicken' weeds out anti-social behaviour

A SIMPLE game of "chicken" has led two Leicester University psychologists to conclude that the "prison works" anti-crime policy is futile. Andrew Colman and Clare Wilson studied behaviour patterns of Antisocial Personal Disorder (APD) sufferers. Only 2 per cent of the population has APD, while 50 per cent of the prison population is said to suffer from it. Simulated games of "chicken", in which two drivers speed towards each other on a collision course unless one "chickens out", were used to identify those prone to APD.

APD sufferers seldom "chicken out" of the game. The researchers found that however a population evolves, there is always a fixed number of people who behave antisocially. They develop the characteristics through learning and imitation, rather than biology.