The Dark Tetrad and callous reactions to mourner grief: Patterns of annoyance, boredom, entitlement, schadenfreude, and humor

Bereavement is an exceptionally stressful time associated with a host of negative consequences. This difficulty is often exacerbated by encounters with emotionally callous people. To better understand these individuals, I examined the experiences of two hundred and sixty five college students who engaged in conversations with mourners. Specifically, I examined the predictive relationship between the Dark Tetrad (DT) traits and callous psychological reactions to mourners. The results revealed that sadism predicted feelings of entitlement and humor, while both psychopathy and sadism predicted feelings of schadenfreude toward the mourners. Although Machiavellianism and narcissism both predicted feelings of annoyance, they exhibited opposite patterns. These findings suggest that the DT traits play an important role in callous reactions to mourner grief.