lecture 3- the dark triad of personality

What are the dark triad traits?

• narcissism: superiority, overconfidence, sense of entitlement

  • Vulnerable narcissism- low self-esteem, overcompensating

• Machiavellianism: manipulative, exploitative, cynical, behavioural flexibility

• Psychopathy: emotional coldness, self-centred, antisocial behaviour

  • Primary psychopathy- emotional detachment, immoral, deceitful

  • Secondary- risky, impulsive, sensation-seeking

• these traits are related but distinct with a common core of coldness, exploitation, lack of empathy.

What was Holtzman (2011) study?

• Self-reports and peer reports of personality

• created morphed prototype images of high and low scoring dark triad faces from lots of images and showed them to ppts

• Ppts detected all 3 traits at above chance levels

What was Brewer et al 2019 study?

• 96 women allocated to alcohol, placebo, or control conditions and presented with 15 facial composite pairs

• Ppts were averse to faces with high levels of narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy, and perceived them to be more dangerous

• Did not differ across alcohol conditions

How do women perceive high dark triad men according to studies?

• mate choice not based entirely on face- when characters are created to capture dark triad traits, were rated by women as more attractive

• Younger women more attracted to high dark triad men than older women

• However dating adverts written by high or low mach men were rated as a potential ST or LT partner

  • Low mach men preferred as long term and vice versa

  • High mach men perceived as more likely to deceive with regard to financial support and commitment.

What did Brewer et al. 2018 find in terms of attachment, conflict, and control?

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What is the relationship between dark triad traits and reproductive outcomes?

• lifestyle facet of psychopathy (impulsive, irresponsible) related to fewer children

What is the relationship between dark triad traits and aggressive sexual behaviour?

• associated with engagement in aggressive sexual behaviour e.g. sexual coaxing, coercion, harassment

• Primary psychopathy and narcissism particularly associated with sexually coercive strategies of varying degrees and intentions to use coercion in the future

• Also associated with low levels of empathy, inappropriate emotional responses, moral disengagement, and pleasure from another person’s misfortune

What are measurement and conceptual issues with the dark triad?

• there are grandiose and vulnerable dimensions of narcissism

  • Measure and practice typically focus on grandiose dimension

• Mechiavellianism and psychopathy are more similar to each other than to narcissism

• It has been argued that existing measures of mechiavellianism actually assess psychopathy

• Data often collected from WEIRD samples