The fragile but bright facet in the Dark Gem: Narcissism positively predicts personal morality when individual's self-esteem is at low level

The Dark Triad traits, including narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, are assumed to link to poor personal morality. However, an increasing number of studies suggested that narcissism was brighter than Machiavellianism and psychopathy. In a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 2828), relationships among the Dark Triad traits, moral identity (both internalization and symbolization) and prosocial behavior were examined. The results showed that narcissism was positively related to internalization, symbolization and prosocial behavior, whereas Machiavellianism and psychopathy were negatively related to internalization and prosocial behavior but not related to symbolization. Further, the positive links between narcissism and personal morality was moderated by self-esteem, such that the links were weaker among high self-esteem individuals than low self-esteem ones. These findings highlighted the bright but fragile side of narcissism and were discussed from cognitive and motivational perspectives.