The Dark Triad traits have been repeatedly labeled as facilitating an exploitive mating strategy. However, various researchers have repeatedly conflated short-term mating or casual sex with an exploitive mating strategy. In this study using Mechanical Turk participants (N = 252; 142 men, 110 women), we provided a better test of just how sexually exploitive those high on the Dark Triad traits might be by examining how the traits related to rape-enabling attitudes. We examined how each trait may facilitate rape, whether these associations were robust to partialing the variance associated with the Big Five traits and similar in men and women, and showed that one reason why men may be more likely to rape than women is they are characterized by the Dark Triad traits more than women are. In so doing, we test the confluence model of rape that asserts that personality traits similar to the Dark Triad traits act as one pathway to rape.

A current model of contamination aversion suggests that it has distinct affective and cognitive components that interact to respond to threats. The affective component involves disgust and responds preferentially to direct contaminants (e.g., feces). The cognitive component involves obsessive beliefs and responds preferentially to indirect contaminants (e.g., money). This study examined characteristics of the two components by comparing emotional and cognitive responses to different contaminants. In total, 47 participants completed behavioral avoidance tasks with direct, indirect, and harmful contaminants. Participants rated their disgust, fear of contamination, and threat estimation while in contact with each contaminant. The contaminants produced different emotional and cognitive responses, suggesting the differential involvement of affective and cognitive factors depending on the type of threat. Additionally, it was found that disgust did not habituate over time in contact with contaminants, whereas fear of contamination and threat estimation appeared to decline. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

No abstract