What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine: The Dark Triad and gambling with your neighbor’s money

• Participants were assigned to gamble with their own or someone else’s money.
• The gambling task was heavily stacked in favor of losses.
• Psychopathic individuals gambled with someone else’s money, but not their own.
• Among gamblers, narcissism predicted more money lost.
• Implications for high risk investment and personality are discussed.

Risking other people’s money for personal gain is a growing problem. Three traits (termed the Dark Triad) predicted selfish financial behavior: (a) reckless psychopathy, and (b) overconfident narcissism, and (c) strategic Machiavellianism. Participants in Study 1 completed Dark Triad measures and were randomly assigned to gamble with their own bonus or a bonus belonging to the next participant. Psychopathy correlated with gambling with someone else’s money, but not one’s own money, in a game of certain loss. Narcissism correlated with losing more of someone else’s money. Study 2 produced similar results even when participants’ bonuses were untouched. Overall, psychopathy predicted gambling with someone else’s bonus, and narcissism predicted greater losses. These findings highlight differential financial consequences among the Dark Triad.