Conceptualizing the Dark Triad of personality: Links to Social Symptomatology

The current study examines the conceptualization of the sub-clinical Dark Triad personality traits (Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Narcissism; Paulhus & Williams, 2002) by relating them to normal and abnormal personality. Factor analyses using two samples (N1 = 232, N2 = 198) showed the Dark Triad traits clearly aggregated with each other, with Social Symptomatology, and with low agreeableness. More detailed analyses found that sub-clinical psychopathy is related to a core of socially malevolent traits and items that reflect self-reported deviant socialization in childhood, alienation from others, interpersonal problems, and impulsivity. For Machiavellianism, these relationships were apparent at the item level but not at the trait level. Narcissism, however, appears to be a more distinct construct that relates to aspects of psychopathology other than Social Symptomatology. Overall, results indicate that the Dark Triad is best conceptualized as a form of disordered personality, with links to low agreeableness.

► Conceptualize the Dark Triad by relating it to normal personality and psychopathology.
► Dark Triad is most closely related to Social Symptomatology and disagreeableness.
► Psychopathy was closely related to alienation, interpersonal problems and impulsivity.
► Machiavellianism was related to Social Symptomatology at the item-level only.
► Narcissism, in contrast, appears to be related to other forms of psychopathology.