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For the three conditions (since reduced to two) posited as childhood indicators of future psychopathy/sociopathy, see Macdonald triad.
The Dark Triad is a group of three personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, all of which are interpersonally aversive.[1][2][3] The Dark Triad refers to three theoretically distinct but empirically overlapping personality constructs.[4][5]
The term reflects the perception that these three diagnostic categories, have at least some common underlying factors:[6][7]
The narcissistic personality (in the clinical sense) is characterized by a grandiose self-view, a sense of entitlement, lack of empathy, and egotism. On some theories, such as Kohut's, it is associated with protection of a radically weak, shamed, or damaged self.[8]
The Machiavellian personality is characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others, with a cynical disregard for morality and a focus on self-interest and deception.[9]
The psychopath, or antisocial personality, is characterized by impulsive thrill-seeking, and in its "primary" form by selfishness, callousness, lack of personal affect, superficial charm, and remorselessness.
All three character[istic?]s involve a callous-manipulative interpersonal style,[10] and are considered aversive. ['interpersonally aversive', i.e. averse to interacting via the normal social contract.] Jakobwitz and Egan carried out a factor analysis and found agreeableness strongly dissociated with all dark triad personality types, but other factors (neuroticism, lack of conscientiousness) were associated only with some members of the triad. However, more recent evidence suggests that agreeableness has nothing to do with the core of the Dark Triad. Instead the common variance is accounted for by callousness and manipulation,[11] otherwise known as "Factor 1" of psychopathy according to Hare.[12] In other words, once callousness and manipulation are accounted for, the Dark Triad are unrelated to each other.
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Research on the three Dark Triad traits began in isolation from one another. Although narcissism is debatably the oldest, dating back to Sigmund Freud, psychopathy and Machiavellianism are newer. Psychopathy's origins, much like narcissism, lie in the clinical and abnormal psychology literatures. By contrast, Machiavellianism was developed as a personality trait.
In 1998 McHoskey, Worzel, and Szyarto[13] claimed that Machiavellianism is nothing more than a mild form of psychopathy, and aside from the severity issue, there was no difference between them. Paulhus and McHoskey debated these perspectives at a subsequent American Psychological Association (APA) conference, inspiring the famous Paulhus and Williams (2002) research on the "Dark Triad". Paulhus and Williams found behavioral, personality, and cognitive differences among the traits enough to suggest that they were different, but that further research was needed to elucidate how and why they overlap.
Among the "Dark Triad" traits, two began as observed clinical disorders: narcissism and psychopathy. Narcissism is debatably the oldest, tracing back to the writings of Sigmund Freud. Psychopathy as an observed syndrome did not begin until the early writings of Hervey Cleckley in 1941 with the publication of The Mask of Sanity.[14]
With respect to empirical research, psychopathy was not formally studied until the 1960s and '70s with pioneering efforts of Dr. Robert Harewith his Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) and its revision (PCL-R).[15] Hare notes in his book, "Without Conscience" [16] that asking psychopaths to self-report on important matters would result in dubious outcomes.
However, recent efforts have been made to study psychopathy in the dimensional realm using self-reported instruments, such as:
The Levenson Primary and Secondary Psychopathy Scales,[17]
The Psychopathic Personality Inventory,[18] and
the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.[19]
Similarly, narcissism lacked a means of assessing the disorder outside of clinical interviews, until the popular "Narcissistic Personality Inventory" was created by Raskin and Hall in 1979.[20] Since the NPI, several other measures have emerged in an attempt to provide self-report alternatives for personality disorder assessment.[21] In addition, new instruments have been developed to study "pathological" narcissism [22] as opposed to "grandiose" narcissism, which is what many argue the NPI measures.[23][24]
Given the dimensional model of narcissism and psychopathy, complemented by self-reports that are appropriate for the general population, these traits can now be studied at the subclinical level.[25] Although some argue that subclinical simply means that it is a less severe version, others have argued that severity is irrelevant. Instead, subclinical has been referred to by others as meaning that it is not sufficiently interfering with day-to-day life to warrant diagnosis or imprisonment.
Machiavellianism has never been referenced in any version of the Diagnositic and Statstical Manual for psychological disorders (DSM). It has been treated as strictly a personality construct. The original published version of the Mach-IV and Mach-V scales [26] are still the most popular that are used in empirical research.[27]
Most work on the Dark Triad points to correlations with aggression,[28] racism [29] and bullying.[30] for evidence of the aversive nature of these traits.
In general, most researchers treat these traits as pathological, something that needs to be treated, and inherently bad. However, some argue that this view of the traits is the result of researchers having an implicit group selection orientation towards personality traits.
Moreover, the time-course of the benefits are an important consideration. These traits appear to predispose individuals to short-term rewards and relationships over long-term rewards and benefits. Although advanced societies attempt to promote long-term thinking (environmental protection, saving money for retirement), there are reproductive benefits for the individual for thinking and acting on a shorter time-course.[31]
Consistent with this perspective, those high on the Dark Triad tend to have
an accelerated mating strategy, reporting more sex partners, more favorable attitudes towards casual sex,[31]
lowered standards in their short-term mates,[32]
a tendency to steal or poach mates from others,[33]
more risk-taking in the form of substance abuse,[34]
a tendency to prefer immediate but smaller amounts of money over delayed but larger amounts of money,[35]
limited self-control and ADHD symptoms[36] and
a pragmatic and game-playing love style.[37]
These traits have been identified as part of a fast life strategy that appears to be enacted by an exploitative, opportunistic, and protean approach to life in general[38] and at [to?] work.[39]
However, the research pertaining to the Dark Triad as a mating strategy is based almost exclusively on college students, which limits generalizability. Further, there is research to suggest empirical inconsistency. For example, using established measures of the Dark Triad, these traits are not universally short term oriented [40] nor are they all impulsive.[41] In addition, much of the research reported pertaining to the Dark Triad cited in the above paragraph is based on statistical procedures that erroneously assume the Dark Triad are a single construct, in spite of genetic [42] and meta-analytic evidence to the contrary.[43] Readers are especially cautioned against drawing conclusions based on research that: (a) is solely represented by student samples while claiming to study evolutionary or mating research, (b) rely only on self-report data when analyzing personality traits known for interpersonal deception.