Feeling me, feeling you? Links between the Dark Triad and internal body awareness

• We studied the relationship between the Dark Triad and body awareness.
• Narcissism was related to better multidimensional interoception.
• Machiavellianism was related to low trust in body experiences.
• Psychopathy was related to skills and deficits in interoception.
• Some of the relationships were moderated by sex.

Despite a rapid increase of interest in the Dark Triad of personality (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism), very little research has focused on links between the Dark Triad and internal body awareness (i.e., interoception). In an on-line study (N = 323), we investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad and different facets of interoception, such as awareness and trust in body sensations, the capacity to regulate attention, and an awareness of mind–body integration. When we controlled for shared variance between the Dark Triad traits, narcissism emerged as a positive predictor for all but one facet of interoception. Primary psychopathy was a positive predictor of attention regulation, whereas secondary psychopathy was a negative predictor of awareness of body sensation and attention regulation. Machiavellianism emerged as a negative predictor of trusting body sensations. The findings are discussed within an evolutionary framework.