An extension of the dark triad and five‐factor model to three Asian societies

Abstract

The aim of this study is to test the external validity of the short dark triad (SD3) and see whether the dark triad (DT) framework is replicable in Asian societies. In three independent studies involving 443 participants from South Korea, China, and the Philippines, we extend short measures of the DT and the big five framework as well as conduct confirmatory factor analysis to test various models of the SD3 in each country. We also test for measurement invariance, report intercorrelations, alpha coefficients, and gender differences within each sample. Except for Machiavellianism, all models failed configural invariance. Despite failing configural invariance across all three countries, males consistently reported higher means on all DT traits, with psychopathy the lowest, and DT constructs were significantly intercorrelated with each other across all three samples, demonstrating a pattern of consistency with previous DT literature and findings. As the DT continues to gain in popularity and is beginning to surface in cross-cultural research, we contribute to discussions concerned with the construct's external validity. Our study's findings question what, if any, meaningful interpretations can be made from extending Western-based personality instruments to Asian (foreign) societies. Limitations and contributions of this study are outlined, and recommendations for future research are summarized.

Structure of Dark Triad Dirty Dozen Across Eight World Regions

“…The structure of the SD3 was hypothesized to be three correlated factors, but it seldom yields satisfactory results (Arseneault & Catano, 2019;Atari & Chegeni, 2016;Gamache, Savard, & Maheux-Caron, 2018;Onyedire et al, 2019;Persson, Kajonius, & Garcia, 2019;Rogoza & Cieciuch, 2019). In contrast, the factorial structure of DTDD is usually confirmed (Dinić, Petrović, & Jonason, 2018;Klimstra et al, 2014;Küfner, Dufner, & Back, 2014;Maneiro et al, 2019;Özsoy, Rauthmann, Jonason, & Ardıç, 2017).…”

When the Dark Shines: The Role of Dark Personality Traits in Leadership Role Occupancy and Hiring Decisions in a Collectivistic Culture

“…Our two studies also found a poor fit for a three latent factor model for the SD3 Scale. This finding is supported by Arseneault and Catano (2019) who tested the full SD3 construct in three different collectivist Asian countries and revealed a similar poor measurement model fit for SD3. However, although the SD3’s internal psychometric structure did not appear to be that of three latent factors, convergent construct validity of this scale is replicated: The scores for SD3 correlated between narcissism and extroversion in a consistent way as reported by previous research (Douglas, Bore, & Munro, 2012; Paulhus & Williams, 2002; Veselka, Schermer, & Vernon, 2012).…”

“…Nevertheless, cross-cultural consistency in the internal psychometric structure of SD3 still warrants further research. Perhaps behaviors assessed in SD3 that captures one personality characteristic in one culture might not capture the same personality characteristic in another culture (Arseneault & Catano, 2019).…”

Network Analysis of the Short Dark Triad: A Cross-Cultural Study in 10 Countries

“…The Short dark triad (SD3) is a widely used measure that has advantages over other similar short measures due to its diverse and specific conceptual breadth (Dinić & Jevremov, 2021;Maples et al, 2014). However, while the original model was composed of three correlated factors, it has been necessary to reformulate the model in some studies to obtain a parsimonious structure (Atari & Chegeni, 2016;Boonroungrut et al, 2020), and replicated in others (Arseneault & Catano, 2019;Gamache et al, 2018;Onyedire et al, 2019). To examine the systemic representation of the dark triad traits across different continents, new perspectives are needed.…”