Dark Triad Traits and Risky Behaviours: Identifying Risk Profiles from a Person-Centred Approach

Abstract

The relationship between Dark Triad traits and risky behaviours has been shown in recent years. However, few studies have attempted to disentangle this relationship using a person-centred approach. The goal of the current study was to identify subgroups of individuals on the basis of their scores on Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism and analyse the differences between them in a set of risky behaviours (i.e., frequency of substance use, reactive and proactive aggression, risk perception and risk engagement, and problematic internet use). The sample consisted of 317 undergraduates aged 18–34 (46% males). The results of the latent profile analysis showed five subgroups of individuals that were identified based on their scores on the Dark Triad traits: low-Dark Triad, narcissistic, Machiavellian/narcissistic, psychopathic, and Machiavellian/psychopathic. Overall, the Machiavellian/narcissistic and Machiavellian/psychopathic subgroups showed higher scores for most risky behaviours. The low-Dark Triad scored higher for risk perception. No significant differences between subgroups were found as regards frequency of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use. These findings suggest that the combination of the Dark Triad traits lead to more negative outcomes as regards risky behaviour than individual components. Moreover, they highlight the relevance of using a person-centred approach in the study of dark personalities.

Dark Tetrad and COVID-19 protective measures: Mediating effects of risk-taking tendencies

“…All Dark Tetrad traits showed significant correlations with various risky behaviors ( Stanwix and Walker, 2021 ). In investigation of Dark Triad, Maneiro et al (2020) found that Machiavellianism and psychopathy are positively related to risk-engagement and negatively related to risk-perception. Furthermore, Crysel et al (2013) found that Dark Triad composite is related to various risk-taking tasks, and among Dark Triad traits, narcissism showed the most consistent relationships.…”

Do I care for you or for me? Processing of protected and non-protected moral values in subjects with extreme scores on the Dark Triad

“…Furthermore, narratives play a crucial role in the formation and sharing of moral values, both on a personal and cultural level [ 8 ], and script-driven imagery was successfully applied to study emotional processing in an ecologically valid fashion [ 23 , 36 ]. (4) The high-scorers, defined by the highest quartile in this sample of students, extended the typical average scores reported from employers [ 37 ], graduates [ 38 , 39 ] or competitive athletes [ 40 ]; however, to qualify for this group it was enough to collect 62.2% of the possible points in the scale suggesting that higher scores may exist in critical samples. As we considered only a male sample, we cannot draw conclusions on sex-specific differences in the processing of moral values.…”

The “Well-Dressed Snake Personality”: An Insight into Narcissistic/Psychopathic Personalities

“…The main psychopathological core symptoms of the dark personalities lead to an increase in risk-taking activities and behaviors [29,100]. The Dark Triad is positively associated with risk involvement and negatively associated with risk perception [101]. Studies found a strong association between DT traits and the tendency to take financial hazard [102], disposition toward risky driving [103], health-risk activities, such as substance use and sexual promiscuity [68,104], deviant behaviors, such as aggression [105,106], bullying, cyberbullying [107,108], and crime [109].…”

“…Psychopathic individuals are more likely than Machiavellians and narcissists to have faced the justice system [101]. It should be noted that most studies on psychopathy essentially involved criminals and this may partly justify the fact that most people who express psychopathic traits are known as bullies, sexual offenders, or killers [8].…”