Risk in the face of retribution: Psychopathic individuals persist in financial misbehavior among the Dark Triad

Psychopathy is related to parasitic behavior that is both antisocial and high-risk. Such individuals are unlikely to consider consequences when engaging in selfish financial behavior, even in the face of punishment and financial loss. After completing Dark Triad measures (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism), participants were told that everyone could gamble (in a clearly biased game) with the next person’s bonus. Participants were then randomly assigned to think their bonus was still intact or nearly depleted. Participants were then given the option to punish the previous participant. Finally, participants were given the option to gamble with the next participant’s bonus. Wins benefited current participants, and losses hurt the next participant. Participants were reminded that they could be punished by the next participant and lose everything. Results indicated that all three Dark Triad traits correlated with attempting one round of gambling. However, only individuals high in psychopathy persisted in gambling, leading to greater financial loss of the next participant. These findings highlight the importance of screening for malevolent traits in the financial world, particularly psychopathy.