Three socially aversive traits-Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-have been studied as an overlapping constellation known as the Dark Triad. Here, we develop and validate the Short Dark Triad (SD3), a brief proxy measure. Four studies (total N = 1,063) examined the structure, reliability, and validity of the subscales in both community and student samples. In Studies 1 and 2, structural analyses yielded three factors with the final 27 items loading appropriately on their respective factors. Study 3 confirmed that the resulting SD3 subscales map well onto the longer standard measures. Study 4 validated the SD3 subscales against informant ratings. Together, these studies indicate that the SD3 provides efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the Dark Triad of personalities.

Past research on socially aversive personalities has focused on subclinical psychopathy, subclinical narcissism, and Machiavellianism-the "Dark Triad" of personality. In the research reported here, we evaluated whether an everyday form of sadism should be added to that list. Acts of apparent cruelty were captured using two laboratory procedures, and we showed that such behavior could be predicted with two measures of sadistic personality. Study 1 featured a bug-killing paradigm. As expected, sadists volunteered to kill bugs at greater rates than did nonsadists. Study 2 examined willingness to harm an innocent victim. When aggression was easy, sadism and Dark Triad measures predicted unprovoked aggression. However, only sadists were willing to work for the opportunity to hurt an innocent person. In both studies, sadism emerged as an independent predictor of behavior reflecting an appetite for cruelty. Together, these findings support the construct validity of everyday sadism and its incorporation into a new "Dark Tetrad" of personality.

The Dark Triad consists of three overlapping but distinct personality variables: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. To date, however, no research has empirically identified what leads these three variables to overlap or whether other variables share the same core. The present research addresses why and how dark personalities overlap. Drawing from classic work in psychopathy, Hare's Factor 1 or manipulation and callousness were found to be the common antagonistic core. A series of latent variable procedures, including Multisample Structural Equation Models, revealed that for both samples, manipulation and callousness, completely accounted for the associations among the facet scores of the psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism scales. Sample 2 also included Social Dominance Orientation, and results further confirmed that Social Dominance Orientation has the same common core as the Dark Triad. In sum, Hare's Factor 1—manipulation–callousness—emerged as common dark core that accounts for the overlap among antagonistic traits. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology

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Although previous research has demonstrated that ego-threatened narcissists react aggressively, no allowance was made for the overlap of subclinical narcissism with subclinical psychopathy. Nor is there research directly comparing the reactions of these two personalities to physical threat. To investigate these distinctions, the present study examined the degree to which narcissists and psychopaths respond with aggression to ego threat versus physical provocation. Participants were given the opportunity to aggress with a white noise blast against an ostensible partner who had provoked them. Results replicated previous findings that narcissists aggress in response to ego threat provocation (a personal insult), even when overlap with psychopathy is controlled. By contrast, psychopathy emerged as the unique predictor of aggression in response to physical provocation (a gratuitous blast of loud white noise). The results point to qualitatively different aggression mechanisms underlying narcissistic and psychopathic aggression.

Although all 3 of the Dark Triad members are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal behavior, their motivations and tactics vary. Here we explore their distinctive dynamics with 5 behavioral studies of dishonesty (total N = 1,750). All 3 traits predicted cheating on a coin-flipping task when there was little risk of being caught (Study 1). Only psychopathy predicted cheating when punishment was a serious risk (Study 2). Machiavellian individuals also cheated under high risk-but only if they were ego-depleted (Study 3). Both psychopathy and Machiavellianism predicted cheating when it required an intentional lie (Study 4). Finally, those high in narcissism showed the highest levels of self-deceptive bias (Study 5). In sum, duplicitous behavior is far from uniform across the Dark Triad members. The frequency and nature of their dishonesty is moderated by 3 contextual factors: level of risk, ego depletion, and target of deception. This evidence for distinctive forms of duplicity helps clarify differences among the Dark Triad members as well as illuminating different shades of dishonesty. (PsycINFO Database Record

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