The Dark Triad

Question 1

What are the three Dark Triad Traits?

Answer 1

Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy

Question 2

What is Narcissism?

Answer 2

Lack empathy, focus on self-importance, sense of entitlement, exploitative

Question 3

What is Machiavellianism?

Answer 3

Self interest, manipulation, deception

Question 4

What is psychopathy?

Answer 4

Selfish, callous, anti-social, low empathy, often seen to be a bully.

Question 5

What does Vernon et al. (2008) suggest?

Answer 5

There’s a strong genetic component to each of the three traits

Question 6

How can we measure the Dark Triad? (Jonason & Webster)

Answer 6

‘The Dirty Dozen’ 12 item self-report scale

Question 7

Give an example of the items in ‘Dirty Dozen’ scale

Answer 7

• I tend to manipulate others to get my way (machiavellianism)
• I tend to lack remorse (psychopathy)
• I tend to seek prestige or status (narcissism)

Question 8

How do the traits correlate to the Dirty Doze scale

Answer 8

• Negatively with Agreeableness, empathy, conscientiousness (niceness towards others)
• Positively with Aggression, impulsivity, resilient self-esteem (good self-image)
• Males tend to score higher

Question 9

What’s the relationship preference for those on the Dark Triad

Answer 9

short-term relationships

Question 10

Who scored higher for serious relationships?

Answer 10

Women

Question 11

Who scored higher on one night stands booty calls, narcissism and psychopathy?

Answer 11

Men

Question 12

How did Narcissism correlate to relationship preference?

Answer 12

• uniquely correlated with preference for one night stands and friends with benefits
• negatively correlated with a preference for serious romantic relationships
• negatively correlated in preference for serious relationships

Question 13

How did Psychopathy correlate to relationship preference?

Answer 13

• preference for booty calls
• negatively correlated with preference for serious relationship

Question 14

How did Machiavellianism correlate to relationship preference?

Answer 14

might not be central for predicting short-term mating, instead may not correlate with preference for any relationship

Question 15

Why do Narcissists have a higher preference for one night stands and friends with benefits?

Answer 15

• most social, approach orientation towards friends and an externally validated ‘ego’
• better suited to reinforce their sense of self; correlated with preferring different causal sex relationships
• externally validate ‘egos’ may lead them to create a social environment to stoke their own ego.
• correlated with preferences for all four relationships but when controlled booty-call relationships dropped out.
• by keeping oneself open to a variety of relationships including serious relationships, one night stands and friends-with-benefits, narcists may allow her/himself sufficient sociosexual interactions to make oneself feel good

Question 16

Why is Psychopathy correlated with a preference for Booty Calls?

Answer 16

• opportunistic exploitive mating strategy
• booty-call relationships may be exploitive by their nature whereby individuals are using each other for sex
• sychopathy has been repeatedly labeled antisocial, exploitative, and part of a cheater strategy

Question 17

Why is Machiavellianism not correlated with any relationship variance?

Answer 17

• more sophisticated perhaps
• mach was correlated with preference for one-night stands, friends with benefits and serious romantic relationships, but once the shared variance among the Dark Triad was taken out, Mach did not predict any relationship preference
  ^ suggests prior associations with mach were driven by shared variance with others

Question 18

which traits were positively associated with a preference for low-commitment relationships?

Answer 18

ALL Triads

Question 19

How does the role of sex difference relate to relationship preference?

Answer 19

evolutionary psychs predict sexes have different evolutionary make-ups as an expression to different recurrent selection pressures related to obligation of offspring and reproduction

Question 20

what is the sex difference for the dark triad traits?

Answer 20

Men scored higher than women did on psychopathy and narcissism but only slightly on machiavellianism

Question 21

What preference did men express stronger preference to than women?

Answer 21

one-night stands and booty-call relationships

Question 22

What preference did women express stronger preference to than men?

Answer 22

serious romantic relationships

Question 23

What was the sex difference in preference for one-night stands partially mediated by?

Answer 23

narcissism

Question 24

what was the sex difference in preference for booty calls partially mediated by?

Answer 24

psychopathy

Question 25

What were sex differences in preference for serious romantic relationships partially mediated by?

Answer 25

narcissism and psychopathy

Question 26

What do you think are the costs and benefits of being high in the dark triad traits

Answer 26

Long-term relationships may not be ideal as these individuals are impulsive, think little of long-term consequences and are generally disagreeable

Question 27

What are the findings for sex differences in preference for one night stands?

Answer 27

Men are more likely to score high on narcissism which correlates with a higher preference for one night stands

Question 28

What are the findings for sex differences in preference for booty calls?

Answer 28

Men are more likely to score higher on psychopathy; therefore correlating with a high preference for bootycalls

Question 29

What are the findings for sex differences in preference for serious romantic relationships?

Answer 29

Men more likely to score highly on narcissism and psychopathy, and therefore are likely to score lower (negative correlation) towards preference for serious romantic relationships when partially mediated by the two dark triad traits