Beyond good and evil: Exploring the mediating role of mental toughness on the Dark Triad of personality traits

- Subclinical narcissism might be unique among the Dark Triad of personality traits.
- Subclinical narcissism correlates positively with mental toughness.
- Subclinical narcissism exerts a significant negative indirect effect on both psychopathy and Machiavellianism, through MT.
- MT could facilitate the expression of the adaptive aspects of subclinical narcissism.

The Dark Triad (DT) involves three closely related personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Mental toughness (MT) is a multi-facet trait that entails positive psychological resources, which are important across a range of achievement contexts. Research that examined the association between MT and the DT returned mixed findings. The present study aimed at: (1) exploring the association between MT and the DT using a considerable larger sample in comparison to previous studies; (2) investigating whether MT mediates the association between narcissism with psychopathy and Machiavellianism. The mediation model revealed that narcissism exerts significant negative indirect effects on both psychopathy and Machiavellianism, through MT. The implications of these findings for reducing socially undesirable outcomes, often linked to the DT, are discussed.