Revisiting the Structure of the Short Dark Triad

Abstract

In the past decade, extensive interest has been directed toward the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), popularly assessed by the Short Dark Triad (SD3). Nevertheless, relatively little research has been conducted on the SD3's factor structure. We investigated the SD3's psychometric properties in three studies with three independent samples, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses ( N = 1,487; N = 17,740; N = 496). In all three studies, Machiavellianism and psychopathy items displayed large general factor loadings, and narcissism larger specific factor loadings. In subsequent studies, two- and three-factor models fitted the data similarly, with the best fitting model being a bifactor model with items from Machiavellianism and psychopathy modelled as one specific factor, and narcissism as a second specific factor. On this basis, we suggest that the SD3 does not seem to capture the different mental processes theorized to underlie the similar behaviors generated by Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Additionally, we recommend the use of a single SD3 composite score, and not subscale scores, as subscales contain small amounts of reliable variance beyond the general factor.

Dark malevolent traits and everyday perceived stress

“…Characteristic and unifying in all the Dark Triad traits is the antagonistic tendency -For example, lack of empathy, inclination to manipulate, and high self-regard (Furnham et al 2014;Paulhus and Williams 2002;Persson et al 2017a). Interestingly, shared variance between particularly psychopathy and Machiavellianism is often high, marked by social disinhibition, while narcissism sometimes is set apart by social skills (Lee and Ashton 2005;Paulhus and Williams 2002;Persson et al 2017b).…”

Structural Investigation of the Short Dark Triad Questionnaire in Polish Population

“…In contrast, some researchers have argued for reducing the Dark Triad into the Dark Dyad by excluding narcissism (Egan et al 2014;Kowalski et al 2016). Although the research on the Dark Triad is flourishing (Furnham et al 2013;Paulhus 2014), few studies have investigated the structure of the Dark Triad and assessed it critically (Persson et al 2017). Thus, the main objective of the current paper is an in-depth investigation of the Dark Triad's structure.…”

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

“…For example, Persson et al (2019) investigated the SD3's psychometric properties in three separate studies with large samples (Ns = 496,1,487,17,740) and found Machiavellianism and psychopathy items to be modelled as one specific factor that is distinguishable from narcissism. Given this overlap, recent studies have begun to question the SD3's factor structure and divergent validity within DT traits.…”

“…A large body of research has emerged since the inception of the DT, but nearly all studies have examined North American undergraduate samples (i.e., Hodson, Hogg, & MacInnis, 2009;Jonason, Kaufman, Webster, & Geher, 2013;. However, despite this growing popularity, issues with reported alpha coefficients (Dunn, Baguley, & Brunsden, 2013;Jonason et al, 2017), structural fit indices (Jones & Paulhus, 2014;Pabian et al, 2015), and strong intercorrelations among psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Persson et al, 2019;Vize et al, 2018) have surfaced criticisms concerning what meaningful interpretations can be made from such a statistically fragile personality measure. For example, Jonason, Kaufman, Webster, and Geher (2013) surveyed samples from Singapore and Poland, examining the interplay of romantic relationships and the DT; Robertson, Datu, Brawley, Pury, and Mateo (2016) comparatively examined the influence of self-construals and power distance across the USA and the Philippines, and found that the DT traits operate differently across the two countries; and most recently Jonason et al (2017), examined individual differences across six countries and found that males scored higher on all DT traits regardless of location.…”

“…Nearly all research investigating the DT to date has used North American or Western European participants, and most participants have consisted of undergraduate students (see O'Boyle, Forsyth, Banks, Story, & White, 2015). Despite the DT's growing popularity in research, its structural framework has recently come under scrutiny, for example, as fitting more of a "dark dyad" with psychopathy being indistinguishable from Machiavellianism (Persson, Kajonius, & Garcia, 2019;Rogoza & Cieciuch, 2018;Vize, Lynam, Collison, & Miller, 2018), and has been criticized as having poor model fit(s) when replicated (Atari & Chegeni, 2016;Pabian, De Backer, & Vandebosch, 2015;Rogoza & Cieciuch, 2017). We are interested in investigating the external validity of the DT framework on foreign cultures to see what meaning, if any, can be drawn from extending Western-based personality measures to foreign societies.…”