The dark triad of personality

Dark triad traits

• Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism

• Common core of emotional coldness, exploitation, and a lack of empathy

Narcissism

superiority, overconfidence, and a sense of entitlement

Machiavellianism

• manipulative, cynical, and behavioural flexibility

• feel if they do not exploit others people will exploit then. They have a lack of faith but do not enjoy seeing them hurt

Psychopathy 

emotional coldness and self-centred and antisocial behaviour

Primary psychopathy

emotional detachment, immoral and deceitful behaviour- usually successful

Secondary psychopathy

risky and impulsive behaviour, sensation-seeking- usually impulsive

Attractiveness: Holtzman (2011) & Brewer et al. (2019)

Holtzman:

Self-reports and peer reports of personality

•Created prototypes of high and low Dark Triad faces

•Participants detected all three traits at above chance levels

Brewer:

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

•Participants were averse to faces with high levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy

•Women perceived faces high on narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy to be more dangerous

•Perceived attractiveness and perceived dangerousness did not differ across alcohol conditions

Attractiveness: advertising 

• When characters are created to capture Dark Triad traits (writing descriptions which include these traits) these are rated by women as more attractive

• Younger women are more attracted to high Dark Triad men than older women

Long term vs. short term partners

• Men low on Machiavellianism were preferred as long-term mates and men high on Machiavellianism were preferred as short-term mates

Attachment: Brewer (2018)

• Women completed Dark Triad measures and the Experiences in Close Relationships Revised questionnaire

• Attachment anxiety- sensitive to romantic rejection.

• Attachment avoidance- uncomfortable when dependent on someone & intimacy.

• Anxiety: Dark Triad traits explained 42.1% of variation in attachment

• Avoidance: Dark Triad traits explained 64.4% of variation in attachment avoidance

Conflict

• Women completed Dark Triad trait measures and the Accommodation Scale.

• Four subscales: exit (active destructive); voice (active constructive); loyalty (passive constructive); neglect (passive destructive).

• Exit: Dark Triad traits explained 13.5% of variation (Machiavellianism and primary psychopathy)

• Voice: Dark Triad traits 26.3% of variation (Machiavellianism and secondary psychopathy)

• Loyalty: Dark Triad traits explained 14.1% of variation (Machiavellianism)

• Neglect: Dark Triad traits explained a further 18.1% of variation (primary psychopathy)

Control 

• Women completed Dark Triad trait measures and the Interpersonal Violence Control Scale.

• Three subscales: control through surveillance and threats; control over everyday routines and decision making; and control over autonomous behaviour

• Surveillance: Dark Triads explained 17.4% of variation (secondary psychopathy)

• Everyday Routines: Dark Triad traits explained 13.8% of variation (Secondary psychopathy)

• Autonomous Behaviour: Dark Triad traits explained 10.9% of variation (Machiavellianism ,primary psychopathy, and secondary psychopathy

Sexual deception 

Research indicates that those high on Dark Triad traits are more likely to engage in deception including deception in mating contexts (Jonason, et al. 2014)

Brewer, De Griffa, and Uzun (2019)

•Blatant lying (Narcissism and Machiavellianism)

•Self-serving deception (Primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy)

•Deception to avoid confrontation (Machiavellianism)

Infidelity: Brewer, et al. (2015)

•Previous incidence of infidelity(Narcissism- think they wont get caught)

•Intentions to engage in infidelity (Narcissism and secondary psychopathy-associations with low self-esteem)

Reproductive outcomes: Međedović, et al. (2017)

• lifestyle” facet of psychopathy (i.e., impulsive, irresponsible) related to fewer children, and the “interpersonal” facet (i.e., manipulation and dishonesty) was sensation seeking)

• Research to suggest animals which are bold/aggressive have higher offspring

• Narcissism positively associated with number of offspring

• Psychopathy predicted fewer children

aggressive sexual behaviour

•Dark Triad traits are associated with engagement in aggressive sexual behaviour including sexual coaxing, coercion, and harassment

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

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

Detecting vulnerability: Black, Woodworth, and Porter (2014)

• Found dark Triad traits did not predict accuracy or responsiveness to particular conditions

• Those with high levels of Dark Triad traits displayed a “negative other” heuristic – they generally perceived all targets to be weak and vulnerable

Perceptions of sexual harassment: Brewer et al, 2021

• Dark Triad traits predicted, victim blame, perpetrator blame, and no blame

• Primary psychopathy was the only significant predictor, perpetrator blame, no blame

• Dark Triad traits predicted attitudes towards compliance, and confrontation in response to sexual harassment.

• The model did not predict attitudes towards ignoring sexual harassment,

• Primary psychopathy was the only individual predictor

Measurement and conceptual issues

• •A range of (individual and collective) measures have been used to assess the Dark Triad traits.

• Grandiose and vulnerable dimensions of narcissism

• Measures and practice typically focus on the grandiose dimension