Dark triad

In theoretical social psychology, the dark triad is a set of three personality traits that appear to predict a person's predisposition to manipulative, self-serving, and morally questionable behavior. The three traits are narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. In psychology, narcissism is defined as excessive self-admiration and includes a pattern of attention-seeking behavior designed to win social approval. While a lack of empathy for others is a characteristic of narcissism, it is considered a definitive aspect of psychopathy, which is also distinguished by high levels of egotism and antisocial behavior, a disinhibition toward committing actions that hurt others, and a lack of remorse or guilt for taking such actions. Machiavellianism, named after the Renaissance-era political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, is a focus on self-interest above all else and a willingness to go to injurious, deceptive, manipulative, or exploitative lengths to satisfy one's objectives and desires.

While the dark triad has been linked to criminality, researchers have also noted that a significant number of successful businesspeople and political leaders also display this set of personality traits. University of British Columbia psychological researchers Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams coined the term in 2002.

Background

Traditional approaches to psychological modeling treated each of the three dark triad personality traits in isolation. Sigmund Freud, the renowned Austrian neurologist and founding father of modern psychoanalysis, was the first to define narcissism in clinical terms. In his 1914 essay "On Narcissism," Freud characterized narcissism as a warped, pathological presentation of sexual desire and natural self-preservation instincts. Freud drew a distinction between "primary narcissism" and "secondary narcissism," with the primary form being a healthy, libido-based expression of the innate impulse to protect oneself from danger—a phenomenon common to all living things. He argued that self-preservation instincts meld with the desire for physical intimacy and sexual contact as a person matures. Secondary narcissism occurs when this libidinous urge ceases to be directed outward toward others and instead turns inward to the self.

Philippe Pinel, a French physician widely regarded as the progenitor of contemporary psychology, was the first to illustrate psychopathic tendencies in a scientific context. In 1801, Pinel described a group of patients who had no cognitive or intellectual deficits but nonetheless displayed predilections toward abusive, antisocial, cruel, and immoral behavior. Pinel's groundbreaking work informed subsequent research. In 1941, the American psychologist Hervey M. Cleckley tied this foundational research together in his influential book The Mask of Sanity. Cleckley portrayed psychopaths as people who wear figurative "masks" that hide their willfully destructive behavioral tendencies behind a façade of charm, intelligence, and sincerity.

Machiavellianism was the last of the dark triad characteristics to be formally identified. In 1970, social psychologists Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis developed a tool for measuring Machiavellian tendencies known as the MACH-IV Test. The test is still used in clinical settings for assessment purposes and asks a set of questions that allow assessors to determine the subject's degree of preoccupation with their own interests. It is evaluated on a scale of one hundred points, with those scoring sixty points or more being considered "high Machs." High Machs tend to prioritize their own ambitions and interests ahead of all else while displaying a fixation on the accumulation of wealth and power at the expense of interpersonal relationships. They are typically reluctant to reveal their true intentions and usually have a general lack of firm values and principles while showing a willingness to resort to dishonest or deceptive means to satisfy their desires.

Overview

In 1998, the research team of John W. McHoskey, William Worzel, and Christopher Szyarto published "Machiavellianism and Psychopathy" in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The paper is widely cited as one of the first studies to consider the personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism as intersecting rather than discrete phenomena. McHoskey, Worzel, and Szyarto controversially concluded that while there are terminological distinctions among the three traits, there is little practical difference among them. They essentially argued that any one of the terms could be interchanged for any other in describing a noninstitutionalized person exhibiting related personality attributes.

Paulhus and Williams built on this research in their 2002 paper "The Dark Triad of Personality," which appeared in the Journal of Research in Personality. At the time, Paulhus was a University of British Columbia psychologist with a research interest in narcissism, and Williams was one of his graduate students. At Williams's suggestion, the two set out to further study the possible links among narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. They examined a sample of 245 students, administering a set of tests designed to measure levels of subclinical narcissism, subclinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Paulhus and Williams found demonstrable and clinically significant distinctions among the three traits, while noting that they overlap and can occur in tandem. In the process, they coined the term dark triad, which continues to be used as a standard in both professional and lay circles.

Further research suggests that both narcissism and psychopathy appear to have genetic components, while Machiavellianism is more strongly correlated with an individual's environment and upbringing. Individuals with all three dark triad traits tend to have a callous disregard for social values, little consideration for the feelings of others, and do not hesitate to cause others harm if it allows them to achieve a self-serving goal or desire. Much of the research into the dark triad has thus far focused on its applications in criminology, law enforcement, business management, political science, and entrepreneurship. Some have argued that while dark triad traits often drive people to engage in criminal activities, they can also be harnessed to propel an individual to very high levels of professional and financial success.

While social psychologists have widely accepted the concept of the dark triad, contemporary perspectives increasingly view it as an evolving rather than a static concept. For example, in the 2016 book The Dark Side of Personality, Virgil Zeigler-Hill and David Marcus argue that sadism, or the tendency to take pleasure in causing pain, shares many characteristics of the traditional dark triad traits and may merit inclusion in clinical examinations of the phenomenon.

In the 2010s, researchers Scott Barry Kaufman, David Yaden, Elizabeth Hyde, and Eli Tsukayama identified a cluster of personality traits antithetical to the dark triad called the “light triad.” These prosocial traits include humanism (valuing other people’s dignity), Kantianism (treating people as beings worthy of respect and moral treatment rather than as pawns), and faith in humanity (seeing fundamental goodness in the world). Kaufman and his colleagues assert that people’s behavior and personalities result from the interplay of the dark and light traits they possess. This approach to the theory may explain why some individuals who display dark triad traits are successful in business despite a seemingly negative interpersonal predisposition.

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