The dark triad and normal personality traits

Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy are often referred to as the ‘dark triad’ of personality. We examined the degree to which these constructs could be identified in 82 persons recruited from the general population, predicting that the dark triad would emerge as a single dimension denoting the cardinal interpersonal elements of primary psychopathy. We expected the primary psychopathy dimension to correlate negatively with Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C), whereas secondary psychopathy would be associated with Neuroticism (N). The negative correlation was found between primary psychopathy and A, but not with C. While the predicted correlation between secondary psychopathy and N was found, N was also positively associated with primary psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Factor analysis revealed that all measures of the dark triad loaded positively on the same factor, upon which A loaded negatively. Secondary psychopathy loaded positively on a second factor, together with N and (negatively) with C. These findings reiterate the distinguishing properties of secondary psychopathy, impulsivity and anti-social behaviour relative to primary psychopathy. Thus, even in the general population, the dark dimension of personality can be described in terms of low A, whereas much of the anti-social behaviour in normal persons appears underpinned by high N and low C.