Dark Triad
Lurking beneath the surface of people who use others to their own advantage is psychology’s “Dark Triad.” Defined as a set of traits that include the tendency to seek admiration and special treatment (otherwise known as narcissism), to be callous and insensitive (psychopathy) and to manipulate others (Machiavellianism), the Dark Triad is rapidly becoming a new focus of personality psychology.
Researchers are finding that the Dark Triad underlies a host of undesirable behaviors including aggressiveness, sexual opportunism, and impulsivity. Until recently, the only way to capture the Dark Triad in the lab was to administer lengthy tests measuring each personality trait separately. With the development of the “Dirty Dozen” scale, however, psychologists Peter Jonason and Gregory Webster (2010) are now making it possible to spot these potentially troublesome traits with a simple 12-item rating scale.
The technical definition of the Dark Triad, as stated in Jonason and Webster’s article, is rather daunting: “the Dark Triad as a whole can be thought of as a short-term, agentic, exploitative social strategy...” (p. 420). This means, in simpler terms, that people who show these qualities are trying to get away with acting out against others in order to achieve their own ends. Each of the individual qualities alone can make life difficult for those who know people like this. Combined, the Dark Triad traits in another person close to you can be detrimental to your mental health.
People who score high on the traditional Dark Triad measures that test each of the three qualities separately show a pattern of behavior that in fact combines the worst of all worlds. They seek out multiple, casual sex partners. When someone gets in their way, they act out aggressively to take what they want. Oddly enough, although their self esteem doesn’t seem to be either higher or lower than others, people who score high on the Dark Triad qualities have an unstable view of themselves. Perhaps reflecting the aggressiveness inherent in the Dark Triad, these tendencies are more likely to be shown by men, particularly those who are high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism.
Psychologists are just beginning to discover the darkest sides of the Dark Triad, and there will certainly be more that we learn about the problems they create for others (and themselves) in the very near future. In the meantime, Jonason and Webster’s Dirty Dozen scale can give you a quick way to spot the Dark Triad individual in your midst. Rate each item on a 7-point scale as you think it applies to this person. Of course, you can also rate yourself on these qualities to see how you measure up:
I tend to manipulate others to get my way.
I tend to lack remorse.
I tend to want others to admire me.
I have used deceit or lied to get my way.
I tend to be callous or insensitive.
I have used flattery to get my way.
I tend to seek prestige or status.
I tend to be cynical.
I tend to exploit others toward my own end.
I tend to expect special favors from others.
I want others to pay attention to me.
The total score can range from 12 to 84, but you can also break down the scales into the three traits as follows: Machiavellianism= 1, 5, 7, 10; Psychopathy= 2, 4, 6, 9; Narcissism= 3, 8, 11, 12.
Among the college students tested in a later, validational, study Webster and Jonason (2013) report an average of about 36, with most people scoring between 33 and 39, meaning that anyone scoring upwards of 45 would be considered very high on the Dark Triad total.
What does it mean, then, to possess high levels of the Dark Triad qualities? In an investigation of how others perceive the Dark Triad traits, Austrian psychologists John Rauthmann and Gerald Kolar (2010) asked non-university adults ranging from 18 to 75 years of age to judge the perceived “darkness” of each Dark Triad quality.
Of the three, narcissism was judged to be the “brightest.” People who are high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism can cause you harm but many narcissists only harm themselves. The argument can even be made that narcissists possess qualities that others find desirable, such as being more physically attractive, charming, conscientious, and achievement-oriented. Rauthmann and Kolar suggest that perhaps narcissism should be seen as distinct from the other, which they renamed the “Malicious Two.” However, other studies suggest that over time, the initial glow of the narcissist’s bright qualities does tend to fade. People who interact with narcissists like them less and less the more time they spend with them.
It may be difficult for us to rate ourselves on the Dark Triad traits and to see how our behavior affects those of the people we know. Rauthmann and Kolar found that people rated the consequences for others of these qualities to be worse when committed by others than by oneself. In other words, we don’t see the harmful results of our own harmful behavior when directed at others. We are able to see the harm that others inflict by their own hurtful actions.
As we know from other research, psychopathy and narcissism aren’t single, unitary traits. It may not even be possible to the self-ratings of people on psychopathy scales, given the propensity of psychopaths to lie. Furthermore, there’s more than one kind of narcissist- the grandiose and the vulnerable. The Dirty Dozen scale clearly doesn’t capture these subtleties.
To sum up, the Dirty Dozen scale is – just that— a little dirty.It's main advantage is that it’s quick and easy to complete. If you sense that someone (or you) might have the Dark Triad traits, consider yourself warned.
Follow me on Twitter @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging. Feel free to join my Facebook group, "Fulfillment at Any Age," to discuss today's blog, or to ask further questions about this posting.
Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. 2013
Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420-432. doi:10.1037/a0019265
Rauthmann, J. F., & Kolar, G. P. (2012). How “dark” are the Dark Triad traits? Examining the perceived darkness of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Personality And Individual Differences, 53(7), 884-889. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.06.020
Webster, G. D., & Jonason, P. K. (2013). Putting the 'irt' in 'dirty': Item response theory analyses of the dark triad dirty dozen—an efficient measure of narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism. Personality And Individual Differences, 54(2), 302-306. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.08.027
In the last few years, the “Positive Psychology” movement is all the rage – let’s stop fretting about the underside of human nature, and study people who are happy, courageous, productive, and self-actualized! :-) :-) :-)
But Del Paulhus has bucked the trend, with a series of studies delving into the Dark Side of human personality. As he notes in a paper released today in Current Directions in Psychological Science:
Our work on the “dark side” stands in stark contrast to the popular work on positive personality traits. In our view, dark personalities are more fascinating than shiny, happy folks.
Paulhus and his colleagues have enumerated four different kinds of self-centered and socially offensive people who most of us encounter in our day-to-day lives: Narcissists, Machiavellians, Nonclinical Psychopaths, and Everyday Sadists. Paulhus notes that psychologists often confuse these types of individuals, who all share a tendency to score especially high on measures of Callousness (or lack of empathy for other people). Each of these types also tends to be extroverted and sociable, so often make good first impressions, before going on to make life miserable for those who are exploited by them. But there are important differences, and those distinctions have important implications for the kinds of harm these folks can do to their relationship partners and coworkers.
Narcissists are “grandiose self-promoters who continually crave attention.” Paulhus notes that: “You have undoubtedly been annoyed by these tiresome braggarts.” Frank Sinatra, the great crooner of my mother’s generation, was something of a narcissist, a trait he shared with any number of super-stars in the performing arts, then and now.
Machiavellians, according to Paulhus, are “Master manipulators… one of them has cheated you out of something valuable—a fact that you may not have realized until it was too late.” They differ from narcissists in their especially high scores on tests of manipulativeness, and their inclination to be involved in white collar crime. The stock swindler Bernard Madoff, who worked his way up to the leadership of the New York Stock Exchange, only to use his position to bilk his investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, is the classic Macchiavellian.
Psychopaths, as Paulhus notes, are “arguably the most malevolent,” scoring high on measures of callousness, impulsivity, manipulativeness, and grandiosity, thus being dark across the board. They often do harm to others as they go about seeking thrills with little concern for who gets hurt along the way. Their impulsiveness makes them less adept at white collar crime of the Bernie Madoff variety, and often inclines them towards violence when others get in their way. Charles Manson and Whitey Bulger are classic cases of psychopathy (see Do You Have Criminal Genes?). But Paulhus notes that there are many people whose psychopathy is low enough to keep from landing in jail, while nevertheless leading to costs for those who are drawn close to them.
What is especially troubling about this first set (the original “Dark Triad”) is that they are often socially adept, and can make very good first impressions. For example, they do better on job interviews than normal people, advantaged by their lack of anxiety about the opinions of others, and greater willingness to show off their strengths to strangers while playing it smooth and comfortable.
Everyday sadists share the trait of callousness with the first 3 types, but they are distinguished not by their impulsiveness or manipulativeness (which are in the normal range), but instead by their enjoyment of cruelty. As Paulhus notes, everyday sadists may be drawn to jobs such as police officers or the military, where they can harm others in a legitimate guise. Paulhus is not saying, incidentally, that all law enforcement personnel are sadistic, but simply that their ranks may have a higher than average number of everyday sadists (who, as noted by a police official interviewed recently on NPR, can do great damage to police-community relations).
If you read Paulhus's paper, you might start to wonder about its author – why would anyone be drawn to research on narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism? I have known Paulhus for at least two decades, and enjoyed many conversations with him during long walks around Vancouver (usually after dark, because he is a night owl). He is anything but a narcissist or a psychopath, it turns out. Indeed, he is a really nice guy, humble, and a group player. When he read this blog post this morning, he sent me this note: "Don't know if it messes up the flow, but could you stick in something about my several generations of student collaborators? If there's room for their names, they are: Kevin Williams, Craig Nathanson, Peter Harms, Dan Jones, Erin Buckels." That's decidedly non-narcissistic!
Instead, Del is a tiny bit introverted and highly conscientious, spending a great part of his life working into the wee hours while the rest of his colleagues are fast asleep. What drives Del is a fascination with the meticulous measurement of personality traits. Although his work on the dark side of personality is quite well known, he is better known for his work rooting out response biases in personality tests, and distinguishing the different forms of social desirability that can taint our answers to those tests. He especially loves to uncover distinctions that other researchers have missed, as in the distinction between self-deception versus impression management -- that might lead two different people to rank themselves at the 90th percentile on “niceness” for different reasons (I am fooling myself, but you may simply be trying to fool potential employers).
Paulhus's work on the dark side of personality stems from that same scientific module in his mind. In the recent article on the dark side of personality, he notes that he got into this area because of his concern about “construct creep.” He became worried about how researchers who studied narcissism, for example, without simultaneously thinking about Machiavellianism or psychopathy, would start to expand the term to encompass the other related, but distinct, concepts. Paulhus thinks it is critically important to distinguish the different types of dark personalities, because there are practical consequences – an employee who is Machiavellian will do a different kind of damage than one who is narcissistic or psychopathic, for example. Because these individuals share a tendency to do well in initial interactions, Paulhus argues that it is important that employers use good clean measures of those constructs as part of their personnel assessment batteries. And judging from what some of my friends have told me, some people would have liked to have those measurements on hand before they chose their long-term mates.
Douglas Kenrick is author of The Rational Animal: How evolution made us smarter than we think and Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life: A psychologist investigates how evolution, cognition, and complexity are revolutionizing our view of human nature.
Related posts:
Do you have criminal genes? What you and Whitey Bulger may have in common.
References
Hogan, R. (2007). Personality and the fate of organizations. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Paulhus, D.L. (2014). Toward a taxonomy of dark personalities. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 421– 426.
Paulhus, D. L., & Jones, D. N. (in press). Measures of dark personalities. In G. J. Boyle, D. H. Saklofske, & G. Matthews (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological constructs. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.