Here and now: Sociosexuality mediates the associations between Dark Triad and Time Perspectives (in females)

- Time Perspectives (TPs) and Dark Triad (DT) traits are correlated.
- Life History Strategy (LHS) may underpin the associations.
- Sociosexuality was used as an indicator of LHS.
- Sociosexuality partially mediated the associations between TPs and DT.
- The mediation effects were significant in females but not in males.

The present paper aims to answer the question about actual role of Life History Strategy (LHS) as a factor underpinning associations between the Dark Triad (DT) personality and Time Perspectives (TPs). Recently Birkás and Csathó (2015, Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 318-320) provided evidence for some robust associations between these two domains and interpreted them as a product of slow vs. fast LHS. However, their thesis regarding the mediating role of LHS in the associations between the DT and TPs was only speculative. In the present study we administered DT and TP measures (Dirty Dozen and ZTPI), as well as a sociosexuality inventory (SOI-R), which in our study served as an indicator of LHS, in a sample of 329 adults. We aimed to replicate Birkás and Csathó's results separately for each gender, and test for the hypothesized mediation effects. TPs proved related to DT traits, e.g., Future and Past-Positive were both negatively correlated with psychopathy and Machiavellianism. The associations were partly mediated by sociosexuality, but only in females. Our results suggest that LHS may indeed be responsible for the associations between TPs and Dark Triad, however other mechanisms underpinning these relationships need to be taken into account.