[ehsanul]

They had no remorse for the detrimental outcomes they brought upon those they stole from... no compassion whatsoever.

Sounds like they were simply psychopaths, hence lacking most emotion. It seems like that emotion/empathy was selected for in our evolutionary history (or perhaps it's just a side-effect of something else, don't know), so I don't think psychopathic behavior could possibly be characterized as darwinism.

[jacques_chester]

Both strategies (empathetic and sociopathic) can be selected for; they're relatively stable when combined. The sociopaths need empathetic people to prey on, the empathetic people can tolerate the cost -- up to a point, at which they cooperate to attack the sociopaths.

You might fairly characterise civilisation as the arms race between sociopaths and everyone else.

[exit]

if the majority are emotional/empathetic, there may emerge a niche for a population of lecherous psychopaths - i.e. bankers. evolution doesn't have to move the entire group in a particular direction.