The killer instinct is the ability within a person to take the life of an animal or another human being without the psychological inhibition normally associated with taking life. Psychologists generally accept approximately 2% of individuals have a killer instinct, or formally psychopathy; other analysts question whether it can be taught (for example, through military training and/or after societal breakdown). Some argue that while the mechanical action of killing can be taught, the actual instinct to do so remains inborn or can only be brought out through severe abuse.
It is generally accepted that some humans possess an ability to kill another human in order to achieve a goal. One example is soldiers; soldiers commonly report that in combat, it is simplistic to determine which of their comrades "genuinely wish to kill" and which "are merely serving their time." Posture, walking behavior, attitudes towards the battle can be seen on both an preconscious and fully conscious level, with natural killers in a fire team actively seeking out opportunities to end the life of enemy combatants, while careerists seek out safe and/or supportive roles.
More generally the term killer instinct is used as a hyperbolic idiom for ruthlessness and determination, for example in business and sports commentary, and as a synonym for "finishing touch" when writing about soccer, without a real indication that someone is willing to transgress the taboo of taking a human life.
Famous quotes containing the words killer and/or instinct:
“I see the killer in him
and he turns on an oven,
an oven, an oven, an oven
and on a pie plate he sticks
in my Yellow Star....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“My idea is that the world outside—the so-called modern world—can only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivors—the one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poets—and to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)