Dark Triad Traits, Social Position, and Personality: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

This research explores the Dark Triad traits in 18 cultures from Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. We examined the relationships among Dark Triad traits, as measured by the SD3, with gender, age, social status, and two personality models, HEXACO and Zuckerman’s alternative five factor model (AFFM). There were 10,298 participants (5,410 women and 4,888 men) with a mean age of 40.31 ( SD = 17.32) years old. Between 6% and 16% of the variance in the Dark Triad traits was accounted by culture. Men scored higher than women on all three traits in most cultures, but gender differences were generally larger in European countries. The relationship between the Dark Triad traits dimensions and age is negative, but the largest effect size is small (Psychopathy; η2 = .018). Psychopathy is associated with low Social Position, and Narcissism with high Social Position. In regard to Personality traits, Narcissism is positively related to Extraversion, and Psychopathy is negatively related to Conscientiousness for the HEXACO, and Narcissism is positively related to Activity and Sensation Seeking, and Machiavellianism and Psychopathy are positively related to Aggressiveness and Sensation Seeking for the AFFM.

Testing the cognitive niche hypothesis with structural equation modeling: different dark traits predict an evening-chronotype in males and females

“…The Dark triad (DT) personality cluster refers to a set of psychological traits composed of Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy and narcissism marked by antisocial and self-interested orientations and callousness (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Dark triad traits are all related to low agreeableness in the five-factor model (Vernon et al 2008) and low humility in the Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience (HEXACO) model predisposing sensation seeking and aggressiveness, criminal behavior, and criminal recidivism (Aluja et al, 2022;Muris et al, 2017). The two-factor model of psychopath advocates the existence of primary psychopathy (related to emotional coldness and low empathy) and secondary psychopathy (related to impulsivity and risk-taking) (Levenson et al 1995).…”

“…Narcissism refers to a superior view of the self, excessive vanity, feelings of entitlement, and a grandiose view of the self (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). It is associated with high social position, extraversion, sensation-seeking and activity (Aluja et al 2022). Components of the Dark Triad and their correlates (e.g., emotional dysregulation, low emotional intelligence, low agreeableness) (Stead et al, 2012;Walker et al, 2021) are associated with a wide number of psychosocial variables such as neuropsychiatric conditions (Serafini et al, 2012) and negative clinical outcomes (Belvederi Murri et al 2019).…”

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w individuals to behaviors such as exploitation, manipulation and deception (Muris et al 2017). Only 6-16% of individual differences in DT traits seem to be accounted by culture (Aluja et al, 2022), while 31-64% of individual differences in DT appear heritable (Johnson et al, 2008;Vernon et al, 2008). Because higher levels on DT traits seem to offer some potential reproductive benefits (Burtăverde et al, 2021;Jonason et al, 2009;Jones & de Roos, 2017;Schmitt et al, 2017), we focus to explore the possible evolutionary processes underlying the inter-individual variation in DT traits.The Machiavellian construct is related to an understanding of others as instruments for certain aims and relates with the use of flexible strategies for manipulating other people to achieve personal goals (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).

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Development and validation of Chinese form Short Dark Tetrad (C-SD4)

“…Previous research is mixed with regard to how well measures of dark traits developed in western populations are invariant in samples of other cultures, with some studies suggesting measurement equivalence [ 35 ], but more studies finding non-equivalence [ 36 – 38 ]. Recent research suggests that cultural differences could explain 6%–16% variance in the dark traits [ 39 ]. Variation in the content and structure of dark personality may have to do with specific features of western and eastern cultural traditions.…”

“…Therefore, we conducted four studies (total N = 3181) to generate the Chinese form of Short Dark Tetrad (C-SD4) and examine its psychometric properties. Considering the cultural differences of dark personality [ 36 , 39 ], we expected that some items may need to be dropped or replaced. In study 1, we developed the 38-item Version 1 based on the item pool of the SD4 and conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the 38 items.…”