Aggression as a trait: the Dark Tetrad alternative

•We challenge the assumption that aggression is a unitary trait construct.•We recommend working at the lower level of the Dark Tetrad traits.•The tetrad members aggress in response to qualitatively different provocations.

Aggression is often construed as a unitary trait fully captured by the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). Our review of the literature questions that assumption in several respects. Instead of a top-down approach, we argue for a bottom-up conception based on the Dark Tetrad of personality, that is, narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism. We highlight research showing that each member of the tetrad responds to different provocations. We conclude that the unitary trait conception of aggression has yielded more confusion than understanding. The term aggression should be reserved for outcomes, with many possible trait × situation predictors. Future research should continue the investigation of moderators as well as cognitive mediators to clarify the triggering of aggression in the individual tetrad members.