The Dark Triad

Question 1

Do males or females score higher on the dark triad?

Answer 1

Males (but there is a large within-groups compared to between-groups difference!).

Question 2

Describe some characteristics of narcissism.

Answer 2

Grandiosity, dominance, entitlement, egotism.

Question 3

Describe some characteristics of machiavellianism.

Answer 3

Manipulativeness, cynicism, pragmatic morality.

Question 4

Describe some characteristics of psychopathy.

Answer 4

Impulsivity, thrill-seeking, lack of empathy/anxiety.

Question 5

Name the four main ideas around the evolutionary theory of the dark triad.

Answer 5

1. Short-term, agent, exploitative social strategy - exploit other group members to serve own survival. Attract mates at expense of competitors.
2. Fluctuating selection - adaptive in larger, loose social groups.
3. Negative frequency-dependent selection.
4. Cross-cultural.

Question 6

How do the three constructs correlate?

Answer 6

Low correlations - separate but related constructs.

Question 7

How does the dark triad correlate with IQ?

Answer 7

It doesn’t.

Question 8

What is narcissism highly correlated with?

Answer 8

Self-enhancement such as biased self-rating and over-claiming.
High extraversion, high openness.

Question 9

What is machiavellianism and psychopathy correlated with?

Answer 9

Low conscientiousness.

Additionally, psychopathy is correlated with low neuroticism, high extraversion and high openness.

Question 10

What is the best dark triad model?

Answer 10

The hierarchical model.
Accounted for about 50% of the variance. Half of the dark triad is shared, the other half is unique to each individual trait.

Question 11

Why is the dirty dozen not a good measure for the dark triad traits?

Answer 11

Only 12 items.

Scale consists only of strongly disagree/agree.

Question 12

Explain what is meant by the dark tetrad.

Answer 12

Everyday sadism (Buckels et al, 2013).
Correlated .40-.60 with machiavellianism and psychopathy.
Shares dark core of low agreeableness, empathy and honesty/humility.
Predicts vandalism, online trolling + enjoyment of violent video games.

Question 13

What is the dark triad core?

Answer 13

Low agreeableness, empathy and honesty/humility.

Question 14

What are the two main components of narcissism and what do they represent?

Answer 14

Adaptive/admiration - authority, self-sufficiency, high self-esteem. Self-enhance using public + privates strategies.
Maladaptive/rivalry - entitlement, exploitativeness, exhibitionism. Self-enhance + self-protect using public strategies.
These two components overlap - they are related to each other.
Vanity and superiority also considered but they don’t quite fit into either of the components.

Question 15

Why is it difficult to measure narcissism?

Answer 15

Can’t measure any other way than through self-reports.

Self-reports aren’t good for reporting narcissism as narcissism is usually hidden.

Question 16

Briefly explain the dynamic self-regulatory processing model of narcissism.

Answer 16

Two mental construals: self (grandiose self-views, agent concerns) + other (used for self-enhancement, others are inferior OR idealised).
Two self-regulation processes: intra-personal (attributions, overconfidence, react to threat with anger not sadness; feeds into self-construals) and interpersonal (self-presentation, power + superiority, short-term mating, derogate others, react aggressively to threat; feeds into self-construals and affects others).

Question 17

What are the components of machiavellianism?

Answer 17

No components - it is uni-dimensional.

Question 18

What are the components of psychopathy?

Answer 18

Instrumental (primary) - shallow effect, low empathy, interpersonal coldness. Leads to emotionally stable psychopaths.
Hostile/reactive (secondary) - impulsivity, irresponsibility, aggression. Leads to aggressive psychopaths.

Question 19

What are the consequences of being a high dark triad scorer regarding sexual behaviour?

Answer 19

Shot-term/unrestricted sex.
Poach mates from others.
Retain mates using aggressive, agent tactics.
Mate retention tactics partly explain why mates are more likely to leave.

Question 20

How does aggressive behaviour vary between each dark triad component?

Answer 20

Psychopathy - physical, verbal and premeditated aggression.
Machiavellianism - physical, verbal and hostile.
Narcissism - hostile, reactive.

Question 21

How has sadism been shown to affect cruelty (Buckles, 2013)?

Answer 21

Higher pleasure after killing bugs.

White-noise blasts to innocent opponent. Only sadists were willing to work in order to blast opponent.

Question 22

How have narcissism and aggressive behaviour been linked (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998)?

Answer 22

Essay feedback. Could blast someone’s ear with white noise…
Results showed specific aggression to the person who harmed them.

Question 23

How has psychopathy been linked to academic cheating (Williams, 2010)?

Answer 23

Plagiarism is related the highest to psychopathy.
Self-reported cheating mediated by unrestrained agency and lack of moral inhibition. Also measured several months later which shows that it is an enduring characteristic.

Question 24

How has the dark triad been linked to criminal behaviour?

Answer 24

Blickle (2006) - white-collar criminals higher in narcissism than current managers.
Hepper (2014) - young offenders higher in narcissism vs community members.
Both mediated by low empathy.
However, both of these studies were cross-sectional - difficult to infer causality.
Evidence for high psychopathy in offenders.

Question 25

Explain how group perceptions of narcissistic individuals change over time (Paulhus, 1998).

Answer 25

Initially very positive peer ratings.
Perceived extraversion and openness stay positive after 7 weeks.
All other traits were seen as significantly lower in narcissistic participants after 7 weeks.

Question 26

Describe some characteristics of narcissists in relationships.

Answer 26

Low commitment, ludus (game-playing) love style.
Relationships end quickly - partner unhappy.
Narcissists attractive for short-term flings but predict conflict and lower quality long-term relationships.

Question 27

Describe some strengths and weaknesses of narcissism in organisations.

Answer 27

Strengths: confident, leaders, visionary.
Dark niches.
Weaknesses: free-ride, aggressive, uncommitted.

Question 28

Describe some strengths and weaknesses of machiavellianism in organisations.

Answer 28

Strengths: networking, publicly behave in socially desirable ways.
Dark niches.
Weaknesses: unethical, manipulative, untrustworthy.

Question 29

Describe some strengths and weaknesses of psychopathy in organisations.

Answer 29

Strengths: emotionless, ruthless, achievement focussed.
Dark niches.
Weaknesses: take risks, lack empathy, disregard others/responsibilities, antisocial.

Question 30

Explain the relationship between nature/nurture and each dark triad component (Vernon, 2008).

Answer 30

Twin study. 75 MZ and 64 DZ. adults.
Narcissism: 59% genetics. 41% non-shared environment.
Psychopathy: 64% genetics. 32% non-shared environment.
Machiavellianism: 31% genetics. 39% shared environment. 30% non-shared environment.

Question 31

Name some environmental causes of narcissism.

Answer 31

Detectable from age 8.
Retrospective evidence supports spoilt hypothesis (parental overvaluation, leniency, indulgence).
More longitudinal data + child studies needed!